Scenario of under nutrition among under five years children in India and its states: findings from National Family Health Survey

Authors

  • Piyush Kumar Mishra Department of Community Medicine, Government Medical College, Khandwa, Madhya Pradesh India
  • Vijay Kumar Mishra Public Health Foundation of India (PHFI), Gurugram, Haryana, India

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.18203/2394-6040.ijcmph20203382

Keywords:

Problem states, Stunted, Underweight, Wasted

Abstract

Background: The status of undernutrition among under 5years children living in India is a public health concern. Our study identified contributed factors of undernutrition and current scenario of undernutrition among children living across Indian states. Objective of the study was to know the current scenario of undernutrition among under 5 years children across Indian states and to examine the associated factors with this.

Methods: This study used data from 4th round of National Family Health Survey (NFHS-4) that was coordinated by International Institute for Population Sciences (IIPS) during 2015-16 under the ministry of health and family welfare, GoI. Multiple logistic regression model was done to study the association between outcome (under nutrition) and socio-economic and bio-medical predictors.

Results: This study identified four empowered action group (EAG) states as the problem states because of the greater number of undernourished children living in these states than other Indian states. The children whose mothers were fully exposed to mass media like newspapers/radio/television, have lower prevalence of undernutrition (50.6%). The results of multiple logistic regression revealed that the children belonging to poorest households were 2 times more likely [OR-CI, 2.35 (2.27-2.44)] to be undernourished than those belonging to richest.

Conclusions: Undernutrition can be reduced through awareness with the help of mass media, providing higher education to women and reducing socio-economic inequalities. It is necessary to re-think about nutritional policy with respect to children under 5 years and frame a full proof implementation plan to reduce undernutrition in India. 

Author Biographies

Piyush Kumar Mishra, Department of Community Medicine, Government Medical College, Khandwa, Madhya Pradesh India

Statistician ,Department Of Community Medicine

Vijay Kumar Mishra, Public Health Foundation of India (PHFI), Gurugram, Haryana, India

Research Scientist

References

Tracking progress on child and maternal nutrition. Available at: https:// www.unicef. org/ publications/files/Tracking. Accessed on 12 January 2020.

Headey D, Hoddinott J, Park S. Original article drivers of nutritional change in four South Asian countries: a dynamic observational analysis. Maternal Child Nutri. 2016;12:210-8.

Blössner M, Onis MD, Prüssüstün A, Campbell-lendrum D, Corvalán C, Woodward A. Malnutrition Quantifying the health impact at national and local levels. Enviorn Burden Dis Series. 2005;12.

Lauer JA, Betra AP. Deaths and years of life lost due to suboptimal breast-feeding among children in the developing world: a global ecological risk assessment. PublicHealth Nutr. 2006;9(6):673-85.

Pandey L, Sehgal B, Riboud LG. Strategies to increase the demand for childhood vaccination in low- and middle-income countries: a systematic review and meta-analysis. J Am Med Asso. 2015;298(16):1867-75.

Gragnolati M, Shekar M, Gupta M Das, Bredenkamp C, Lee Y. India’s Undernourished Children: a call for reform and action. Available at: https://hetv.org/india/mh/nutrition/IndiaUndernourishedChildrenFinal.pdf. Accessed on 18 March 2020.

Nutrition in India. International Institute for Population Sciences. 2005. Available at: http://rchiips.org/nfhs/nutrition_report. Accessed on 18 March 2020.

Millennium T, Goals D. The Millennium Development Goals Report 2015. Available at: https://www.un.org/millenniumgoals. Accessed on 18 March 2020.

Mohanty SK, Pathak PK. Rich - poor gap in utilization of reproductive and child health services in India, 1992 – 2005 reproductive and child health.

J Biosoc Sci. 2009;41(3):381-98.

Poel EVD, Hosseinpoor R, Speybroeck N, Ourti V, Vega J. Socioeconomic inequality in malnutrition in developing countries. Bull World Health Organ. 2008;86(4):282-91.

Houweling TAJ, Ronsmans C, Kunst AE. Huge poor - rich inequalities in maternity care: an international comparative study of maternity and child care in developing countries. Bull World Health Organ. 2007;85(10):745-54.

Khan J. Spatial heterogeneity and correlates of child malnutrition in districts of India. BMC Public Health. 2018;1:13.

National family health survey (NFHS-4) 2015-16 India. 2017. Available at: http:// rchiips. org/nfhs/NFHS-4Reports/India.pdf. Accessed on 17 March 2020.

Powers DA, Yoshioka H, Yun MS. Multivariate decomposition for nonlinear response models. Stata J. 2011;11(4):556-76.

Mihrete TS, Alemie GA, Teferra AS. Determinants of childhood diarrhea among under five children in Benishangul Gumuz Regional State, North West Ethiopia. BMC Pediatr. 2014;14(102):1-9.

Ghosh S, Varerkar SA. Undernutrition among tribal children in Palghar district, Maharashtra, India. PLoS One. 2019;14(2):1-14.

Sahu SK, Bhat BV, Sarkar S, Roy G, Joseph N. Malnutrition among under- five children in India. J Natural Sci Biol Med. 2015;6(1):18-23.

Downloads

Published

2020-07-24

How to Cite

Mishra, P. K., & Mishra, V. K. (2020). Scenario of under nutrition among under five years children in India and its states: findings from National Family Health Survey. International Journal Of Community Medicine And Public Health, 7(8), 3087–3094. https://doi.org/10.18203/2394-6040.ijcmph20203382

Issue

Section

Original Research Articles