Epidemiological study of under nutrition among under five years children in an urban slum

Background: Child undernutrition is internationally recognized as an important public health indicator for monitoring nutritional status and health in populations. Prevalence of under nutrition is very high in India; especially in urban slums. Objective: To estimate the prevalence and factors affecting undernutrition among under five years children using WHO growth standards. Materials and Methods: Community-based cross sectional study was done during November-2008 to December-2009 in urban field practice area of Medical College Pune, India. All the under five years children (336) were enumerated by house-to-house survey. Parents were informed about the objectives of the study and their written consent was obtained. Anthropometric measurements of the children who were available during the study period were carried out as per WHO guidelines. Various indices of nutritional status were expressed in standard deviation units (z scores) from the reference median. The children were examined for nutritional deficiencies and other morbidities. Epi-Info 2002 and Primer of Bio-statistics software package was used for statistical analysis. Results: Total 336 children were enumerated by house-to-house visit. Only 319 children were available during the study, out of which 208 (65.2%) were undernourished. Undernutrition was significantly (P < 0.001) higher among boys than among girls. It was maximum in 49-60 months age group. The higher the level of the mother′s education, the lower was the level of child weight for age (P = 0.003). The overall prevalence of morbidities was 43.4%. Conclusion: Malnutrition continues to be a public health problem in children particularly in marginalized groups.