Nutritional status among school going children in Rajabari village, Guwahati, Northeast India.

Mrs Nirmali Gogoi

Volume : VII, Issue : IX, September - 2018

Nutritional status among school going children in Rajabari village, Guwahati, Northeast India.

Mrs Nirmali Gogoi

Abstract :

INTRODUCTION:Nutritional status is an important indicator of quality of life of the children. Malnutrition is one of the major problem in India. Poor nutrition causes nearly half (45%) of deaths in children under five- about 3.1 million children every year. As per National Family Health Survey (NFHS) 3 (2005-06) in India: 48% of children under age five years are stunted (height for age) which indicates that, half of the country�s children are chronically malnourished. As per NFHS-3 in Assam (2005-06): 46.5% of children under age five years were stunted (height for age), 13.7% of under five children were wasted (weight for age), 4% of under five children were severely wasted (weight for height) and 36.4% of under five children were underweight (weight for age). So the aim of this study was to assess the nutritional status among school going children in Rajabari village, Guwahati, Northeast India.

MATERIAL AND METHODS: In this study, the research design adopted was cross-sectional survey design. The sample size was 147 school children by using non probability convenience sampling technique. The tool used for the research study was demographic performa and semi-structure interview schedule. Observational check list of anthropometry measurement was used.

RESULTS AND ANALYSIS: The result showed that majority of children 84(57.15%) were suffering malnutrition and only 63 (42.86%) were in normal status.According to IAP classification,it showed that 63 (42.86%) were normal, 34 (23.12%) mild-moderate malnutrition, 28(19.04%) moderate malnutrition, 15 (10.20%) severe malnutrition and 7(4.76%) very severe malnutrition. According to Agarwal BMI percentile, it seemed that 76 (51.02%) were underweight, 37 (25.17%) were normal, 13 (8.84%) overweight, and 1 (0.68%) were obesity. It also revealed that the prevalence of malnutrition was highest among the age of 5-10 years of children 60(40.82%) as compared to 24 (16.33%) in the age group of 11-15 years.

DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSION: Malnutrition is one of the major community health problem among children. Family, school, community and government should have a major role to alleviate this problem. Community based preventive measures should be taken to improvement of nutritional status.