Abstract

STUDY OF NUTRITIONAL STATUS AND PREVALENCE OF UNDERNUTRITION AMONG SANTAL PRE-SCHOOL CHILDREN

Subhashis Sasmal and Sankar Kumar Dey*

ABSTRACT

Poor nutritional status of children associated with undernutrition. It encircles underweight, stunting, wasting and lack of micronutrients. All age groups are affected by undernutrition in which infants and children are more susceptible to undernutrition in the community. It is well known that chronic undernutrition is correlated with steady cognitive development and consequential health impairment in later part of life which reduces the standard of life in children. This cross sectional study was carried out randomly on the santal pre-school children of either sex, having age range between 1 – 5 years from different villages of Paschim Medinipur and Bankura district of West Bengal. Nutritional status of randomly selected santal pre-school children was assessed by anthropometric measurements e.g. weight,height, mid upper arm circumference, head circumference and chest circumference by standard techniques. On the basis of anthropometric measurements, weight for age (underweight), height for age (Stunting), weight for height (Wasting) were evaluated by Z score test. Statistical data analysis of anthropometric parameters revealed that mean height and weight slowly increased with increasing age of both boys and girls in all studied age groups (1-5 years) of santal pre-school children. There was no statistical significance difference has been take place between santal boys and girls except age group four and five years. Analysis of height and weight on the basis of Z score method, found that overall underweight (< -2Z score) was 71.25%, stunting (< -2Z score) 66.83% and wasting (< -2Z score) 44.96% in santal pre-school children. Widespread of underweight (Boys - 86.63% and Girls – 56.10%), stunting (Boys -76.24% and Girls – 57.56%) and wasting (Boys - 59.41% and Girls – 30.73%) were significantly higher in boys than girls in santal pre-school children. The study observed that santal pre-school children of both Bankura and Paschim Medinipur are suffering from undernutrition severely in the form of, underweight, stunting and wasting. Higher rate of underweight, stunting and wasting was observed in santal pre-school children, indicating the censorious condition in the community. Appropriate steps should be taken to improve the nutritional status of santal children.

Keywords: Santal children, Nutritional status, Undernutrition.