Prevalence of Undernutrition of Lodha Children Aged 1-14 Years of Paschim Medinipur District, West Bengal, India

Objective: childhood undernutrition among tribal children is a serious public health problem in india. the present study was conducted to assess the prevalence of undernutrition (underweight, stunting and wasting) among lodha children of paschim medinipur, west bengal, india.methods: this cross sectional study was conducted in a village of paschim medinipur district. a total of 165 (early childhood=74, late childhood=91) children aged 1-14 years were measured and included in the present study following simple random method. the children were further divided into two categories: early childhood: under 6 years (<72 months) and late childhood: ?72 months. anthropometric measurements such as height and weight were made following standard techniques. children were considered underweight, stunting and wasting as weight-for-age, height-for-age and weight-for-height z-score below –2 standard deviation using the national center for health statistics (nchs) reference population.findings: the prevalence of underweight, stunting and wasting was 33.9%, 26.1% and 19.4 %, respectively. of these, 9.1%, 9.7% and 3.6% children were found to be severely underweight, stunted and wasted. moreover, the prevalence of underweight (47.3% vs 23.1%) and stunting (35.1% vs 18.7%) was significantly higher in early childhood compared to during late childhood. they had 2.05 (rr= 2.05; 95% confidence interval (ci): 1.31– 3.20) and 1.88 (ci: 1.11–3.19) times greater chance to be underweight and stunted than during late childhood. whereas, the prevalence of wasting was similar in both groups (20.3% vs 18.9%; rr=1.09; ci:0.58-2.02). similarly, the rates of severe underweight (early childhood vs late childhood: 16.2% vs 3.3%) and stunting (20.3% vs 1.1%) were significantly higher in early childhood. they had 4.92 (ci: 1.44–16.79) fold and 18.45 (ci: 2.49-136.42) fold more risk to be an underweight and stunted compared to during late childhood.conclusion: the nutritional status of the lodha children, especially during early childhood was unsatisfactory. there is an urgent requirement to improve the nutritional status of children in this ethnic group.