ASSOCIATION OF SOME SOCIO-ECONOMIC AND SOCIO- DEMOGRAPHIC VARIABLES WITH WASTING AMONG PRE- SCHOOL CHILDREN OF NORTH BENGAL, INDIA

Abstract

BACKGROUND: Undernutrition is a global public health problem that causes premature morbidity andill-health conditions and has long-lasting physiological effects in children. The present study assesses theprevalence of wasting [low mid-upper arm circumference (MUAC)-for-age] among children and todetermine the association of wasting with different socio-economic and socio-demographic variables.METHODS: The present cross-sectional study was conducted among 1222 pre-school children (boys:589; girls: 633), aged 1-5 years, in Darjeeling district, North Bengal, India, using multistage stratifiedrandom sampling method. The MUAC was measured using the standard anthropometric procedure. LowMUAC-for-age was assessed by comparing with a standard age-sex-specific reference population (WHO,1995). Children with MUAC value were found to be the z-scores <–3SD, and <–2 SD were considered tobe severely and moderately wasted, respectively. The socio-economic and socio-demographic variableswere recorded using structured schedule methods. The data were statistically analyzed based ondescriptive statistics, chi-square analysis and logistic regression using SPSS (version, 17.0).RESULTS: The age-specific mean MUAC ranged from 126.1-142.5 mm (boys) and 126.9-136.4 mm(girls). The prevalence of wasting was very high (boys: 62.3%; girls: 63.3%) (p>0.05). The logisticregression analysis observed that age, gender, birth order, area (rural), maternal education, householdincome and mothers' age were significantly associated with the prevalence of wasting (p<0.05).CONCLUSION: Using MUAC-for-age, a high prevalence of wasting was observed among the children.Birth order, maternal education and maternal occupation were important determinants of wasting. Thereis an urgent requirement of nutritional intervention programmes to ameliorate the nutritional status ofthe children.KEYWORDS: Malnutrition, Child health, Under Five, Anthropometry, Wasting, Mid upper ArmCircumference, Birth Order, Maternal Education