Nutritional status of pavement dweller children of Calcutta City
Ray, S.K.; Mishra, R.; Biswas, R.; Kumar, S.; Halder, A.; Chatterjee, T.
Indian Journal of Public Health 43(1): 49-54
1999
ISSN/ISBN: 0019-557X PMID: 11243089 Document Number: 284041
This document presents a cross-sectional survey concerning the magnitude of protein energy malnutrition (PEM) and its associated factors among 435 under-5 pavement-dwelling children in Calcutta. Results revealed that 69.43% were undernourished and that 16% of them were suffering from severe malnutrition (grade III and IV of the Indian Academy of Pediatrics criteria for PEM). The 24-35 month age group had the highest prevalence of malnutrition (82.93%) followed by the 36-47 and 12-23 month age groups with prevalences of 76.19% and 74.03%, respectively. Prevalence of severe grade malnutrition was noted to be three times higher in females (24.76%) than males (8.45%), and among families it increased in direct proportion to birth rate and inverse proportion to birth interval. Moreover, children of illiterate parents and nonworking mothers had a higher incidence of severe PEM. Simple measures such as exclusive breast-feeding and timely complementary feeding as well as measures directed toward birth spacing and limiting family size should be implemented to solve the problem of malnutrition.