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Accepted manuscript

Acute malnutrition associated with MUAC among under-five children in tribal areas, India - A cross-sectional study

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 December 2024

Shraboni Patra ,
Shashikant Sambharkar ,
Sheetal Harode ,
Kalpana Barde  and
Amta Pillewan
Shraboni Patra*
Affiliation:
Monitoring and Evaluation Expert, State Monitoring and Resource Cell, Bureau of Nutrition, Nagpur, Maharashtra, Email: [email protected]
Shashikant Sambharkar
Affiliation:
Senior Scientific Officer, State Nutrition Bureau, Nagpur, Public Health Department, Maharashtra, Email: [email protected]
Sheetal Harode
Affiliation:
Medical Officer, Nutrition Bureau, Nagpur, Email: [email protected]
Kalpana Barde
Affiliation:
Nutrition officer, Nutrition Bureau, Nagpur, Email: [email protected]
Amta Pillewan
Affiliation:
Nutrition officer, Nutrition Bureau, Nagpur, Email: [email protected]
*
Corresponding author: Shraboni Patra; Email: [email protected]
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Abstract

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Objective:

For the past three decades, India has implemented several nutrition programs to address malnutrition in the under-fives. To understand the program’s impact, this study assesses the prevalence of acute malnutrition, MAM, and SAM, using MUAC among tribal children.

Design:

The survey was conducted in two tribal blocks (Desaiganj and Bhamragad) of the Gadchiroli district in Maharashtra to identify children registered in the ‘Anganwadi’ program.

Setting:

A community-based cross-sectional survey was carried out.

Subjects:

The total sample size was 1055 children (aged 0-59 months).

Results:

The overall prevalence of SAM and MAM was 1.4% (n=15) and 9.8% (n=103). A higher prevalence of MAM was found in males (38.5%, n= 40) and females (27.1%, n= 28) in below 6 months. Additionally, a higher prevalence of MAM was observed in females (10.7%, n=113) compared to males (9.0%, n=95). The prevalence of SAM was significantly (p<0.001) higher in females (1.7%, n=18) than in males (1.0%, n=11). Children aged between 12 and 17 months were sixteen times more likely (OR=16.9, p<0.001, CIs=4.8-59.6) to have MAM (MUAC<12.5cm) than children aged between 6 and 11 months. Children from the Desaiganj block were significantly less likely (OR=0.4, p<0.001, CIs= 0.2-0.7) to have MAM compared to children from Bhamragad. Approximately 4% (n=42) of children were classified as critically malnourished.

Conclusion:

There is an urgent need for block-level monitoring of MAM and SAM, as well as evaluation of existing nutrition programs, to address the disparity in the sex-specific prevalence of MAM and SAM in tribal areas.

Type
Research Paper
Information
Public Health Nutrition , Accepted manuscript , pp. 1 - 27
Creative Commons
Creative Common License - CCCreative Common License - BY
This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution licence (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted re-use, distribution and reproduction, provided the original article is properly cited.
Copyright
© The Authors 2024