| Category | ORIGINAL_ARTICLE |
|---|---|
| Authors | Saiprasad Bhavsar,Hemant Mahajan, Rajan Kulkarni |
| Abstract | Background: India has made huge strides in the past decades in warding off the spectre of famine. The Green Revolution should have gone a long way to tackling child malnutrition, Norman Borlaug’s creation of dwarf spring wheat strains in the 1960s meant that India could feed itself at last. Better farming techniques and food security policies have made mass starvation a thing of the past. Yet the problem of child malnutrition remains critical, and the reasons it deserves concerted attention are many. Methods: The present study was carried out to assess the impact of health intervention (health and nutritional education) on nutritional status of children attending Anganwadi in Rafiq nagar Mumbai. A longitudinal interventional study was conducted at Rafiq Nagar urban slum. All children below 6 years of age attending 6 Anganwadis were included. The information was gathered by personal interview of mothers using semi-structured proformas. Results: Out of 194 children 93 (47.9%) were males. According to WHO malnutrition grading, 59.8% children were malnourished and only 90 (46.4%) were completely immunized. Malnutrition was prevalent in the age group of 1-2 years. Improvement in weights and heights of children was seen after health intervention for 6 months. Conclusion: Appropriate dietary modifications have to be done to ensure the increased calorie & protein intake as per the recommendations. Nutritional education should be considered as major intervention to reduce problem of Protein Energy Malnutrition (PEM). Mother should be properly educated about the nutritional needs of the growing children and importance of complete immunization. KEYWORDS: Immunization, Health intervention, Malnutrition, Nutritional Education, Urban slum |
| Year | 2013 |
| Month | April |
| Volume | 2 |
| Issue | 2 |
| Published On | 11 Apr 2013 |
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