|
Indian Pediatr 2015;52: 344 |
|
Maternal Profile of Children with Severe Acute
Malnutrition
|
*Ruchi Rai and DK Singh
SN Children Hospital, Church Lane, Allahabad, Uttar
Pradesh, India.
Email: * [email protected]
|
Maternal undernutrition has a long lasting impact on the nutritional
status of her child. We analyzed nutritional status of the mothers of
children with severe acute malnutrition.
We enrolled mothers of 150 children up to 5
year of age who were admitted with severe acute malnutrition (SAM) in
the nutritional rehabilitation center. Demographic details were recorded
in a questionnaire. The mothers were examined for their weight, height,
hemoglobin levels and signs of vitamin A deficiency. The body mass index
(BMI) was calculated and graded according to the World Health
Organization (WHO) classification as underweight (<18.5 kg/m 2),
normal (18.5-24.99 kg/m2),
pre-obese (25-29.9 kg/m2)
and obese (³30
kg/m2) [1]. The underweight
children were further divided into severe thinness (BMI <16.0 kg/m2),
moderate thinness (16.0-16.99 kg/m2)
and mild thinness (17-18.49 kg/m2).
Anemia was defined as hemoglobin <12.0 g/dL (severe <7.0 g/dL, moderate
7.0-9.9 g/dL, mild 10.0-11.9 g/dL)
According to the BMI, 76 (50.6%) of the mothers were
underweight (Table I), out of them 10 (6%) were severely
thin, 23 (15.3%) were moderately thin and the rest were mildly thin.
Anemia was present in 70% mothers, out of which 20% were moderately
anemic and one (0.7%) was severely anemic. Almost half (49.3%) of the
mothers were illiterate and 40% had signs of vitamin A deficiency. At
the time of the study, 57 (38%) mothers had more than two children.
Table I Demographic and Nutritional Parameters of Mothers of Severely Malnourished children (N=150)
Parameter |
Mean (SD) |
Age (y) |
24.8 (4.3) |
Weight (kg) |
42.4 (5.9) |
Height (cm) |
149.40 (5.4) |
Hemoglobin (g/dL) |
10.9 (1.8) |
Body Mass Index (kg/m2) |
18.9 (2.5) |
Age at marriage (y) |
18.1 (2.8) |
No. of children |
2.4 (1.4) |
According to National Family Health Survey-3,
2005-06, 36% of women in Uttar Pradesh are thin, based on their BMI;
almost half of them (14.9%) are severely or moderately thin. In the same
survey, anemia was present in 49.9% of women with 14.8 % having severe
to moderate degree of anemia [2]. Our data showed a much higher
proportion of women having malnutrition and anemia. Association between
malnutrition and multiple factors such as parents’ education, number of
under-five children, birth order, mother’s BMI and height have been
reported earlier [3,4]. The maternal and child undernutrition study
group concluded that to improve nutrition in mother and child,
intervention in the dietary intake should be supplemented with other
strategies like improvement in the underlying determinants of under-
nutrition such as poverty, poor education, disease burden and lack of
women empowerment [5].
Female literacy and nutrition must be addressed to
tackle childhood malnutrition.
Acknowledgement: Ms Shashi Dubey, Nutritionist at
the nutrition rehabilitation center.
References
1. WHO: Global database on body mass index, BMI
classification. Available from: http://apps.who.int/bmi. Accessed
September 15, 2014.
2. Key indicators for Uttar Pradesh from NFHS-3.
Available from: http://www.rchiips.org/NFHS/pdf/. Accessed
October 11, 2014.
3. Moestue H, Huttly S. Adult education and child
nutrition: The role of family and community. J Epidemiol Community
Health. 2008.62:153-9.
4. Rahman A, Chowdhury S. Determinants of chronic
malnutrition among preschool children in Bangladesh. J Biosoc Sci.
2007;39:161-73.
5. Bhutta ZA, Ahmed T, Black RE, Cousens S, Dewey K,
Giugliani E, et al. Maternal and child survival undernutrition
study group. What works? Interventions for maternal and child
undernutrition and survival. Lancet. 2008;371:417-40.
|
|
|
|