Nutrition Status Assessment of Preschool Children at Rural Sectors of Bishnupur Municipality, Bankura District, West Bengal, India

Abstract

To assess the overall nutritional status of hearing impaired pre-school children of Bishnupur municipality, Bankura district, West Bengal, India this cross sectional study was conducted for duration of eight months (March 2013 to October, 2013) at local community in the rural areas of Bishnupur Municipality, Bankura district, West Bengal. The study samples were selected by multi stage cluster sampling method. The level of stunting, underweight and wasting was assessed using standard deviation (SD) classification as against National Centre for Health Statistics (NCHS) reference standards. This study comprises of 400 (boys=205, girls=195) pre-school children age between 2-5 years to assess the prevalence of underweight, stunting and wasting. Our findings focused that the preschool children of the study area are being suffering from stunting, wasting and underweight as the rate of undernutrition at preschool age groups is significantly higher than NCHC standard data. So, this study established very high rates of malnutrition in the form of underweight, stunting and wasting. An effective public health strategy should be implicated by the Government to prevent malnutrition among the vulnerable pre-school children of remote villages of Bishnupur municipality of Bankura district.