Assessment of nutritional status of pre-schoolers in slum areas of Udaipur City.

ABSTRACT

The present study was conducted in pre-schoolers (2-6 years) from ten different slums of Udaipur City in Rajasthan with the aim to their nutritional status. From the data collected and observations recorded was observed that majority of the subjects were from nuclear family with monthly family income of less than Rs.1500/-. Developmental pattern of these subjects indicated that the height with age of bothe male and female subjects increased, however, their body weight did not increase. More than 50% of these pre-schoolers showed symptoms of protein energy malnutrition and anaemia, while 22% had pigeon chest deformity due to vitamin D and calcium deficiency. Classification for degree of malnutrition as per IAP showed that majority of these subjects (66%) were under weight (Grade I and II). Waterlow's classification revealed that majority of these pre-schoolers were wasted (30%) or wasted and Stunted (42%). This malnutrition was either of PCM (past chronic) or CLM (current long duration) type as per Seoane and Latham's classification.