Malnutrition among under-five children of kadukuruba tribe: need to reach the unreached

Abstract

Introduction: Poor nutritional status of tribal children observed in different parts of India, calls for introspection into various factors influencing it, in order to seek remedial measures.

Objectives: To assess the prevalence of malnutrition among under-five children of Kadukuruba tribe and socio-demographic factors associated with it.

Materials and methods: Community based cross-sectional study was done in Kadukuruba tribes of Mysore district over a period of one year among 101 under-five children. Socio-demographic information and anthropometric measurements were obtained by using standard techniques. Height and weight of each child was compared with World Health Organization (WHO) child growth standards-2006 for that particular age and sex to get W/A, H/A and W/H Indices and below 2SD of the reference median on these indices were considered as underweight, stunted and wasted respectively.

Results: Prevalence of underweight, stunting and wasting was 60.4 %, 55.4% and 43% respectively which was significantly associated with respect to age, presence of ration card in thefamily and egg in the child's diet.

Conclusion: Significantly higher prevalence of under-nutrition was noted among under-five children in this community. This calls for educating mothers and other caretakers in the family regarding increased nutritional requirements with increasing age, strengthening Public Distribution System (PDS) and ensuring egg made available in the regular weekly Menu at all Anganwadi's.

Keywords: Anganwadi; Stunting; Underweight; Wasting.