Prevalence of undernutrition among pre-school children ofChapra, Nadia District, West Bengal, India, measured bycomposite index of anthropometric failure (CIAF)

摘要

Since independence, one of the greatest problems facing India is malnutritionamong under five year old children. However, there exists scanty information of the preva-lence of undernutrition among preschool children in India and West Bengal. The presentcross-sectional study investigates the prevalence of undernutrition among children 3.0-5.9years old in a rural area of West Bengal covered by the Integrated Child Development Ser-vices Scheme (ICDS) using Composite Index of Anthropometric Failure (CIAF). Randomlyselected sixty six ICDS centres of the Chapra Block Nadia District, West Bengal, India, werechosen. A total of 2016 children, aged 3.0-5.9 years were studied. It was observed that boyswere heavier and taller than girls at all ages. Significant age differences existed in meanheight and weight in boys as well as in girls. Among the children, 48.20 %, 10.60 % and48.30 % were stunting, wasted and underweight, respectively. The CIAF showed a higherprevalence of undernutrition, with 60.40 % of the studied children suffering from anthropo-metric failure, in comparison to the three other conventional indicators. We conclude that thenutritional status of the subjects is unsatisfactory. More studies dealing with CIAF should beundertaken among pre-school children from different parts of India. Such investigations willallow us not only to compare the rates of three conventional measures of undernutrition withCIAF, but also help to demonstrate the enhanced utility and effectiveness of the latter mea-sure.