Nutritional Status of Under Fives on National Immunization Day in Srinagar

ABSTRACT

A large number of children were reached on national immunization day (NID ) on 20.01.2002 in Srinagar, and an attempt was made to assess the nutritional status of under fives by using weight for age criteria. Eight hundred seventy under fives were selected randomly from urban, rural and slum areas of Srinagar. Protein energy malnutrition (PEM) was found to be in 390(44.82%) of cases. out which 24.14%, 14.96%, 5.06%, 0.068% had grade I, II , III and IV PEM respectively. The prevalence of PEM was higher among females (49.58%) as compared to males (41.48%). It was also high in the age group of 1-3 yrs (55.84%) in slums (57.83%) and in the children or labour classl (58.99%). The prevalence of malnutrition increased with the birth order and family size and decreased with high literacy rate in parents. National immunization day can by used to assess the nutritional status of children and on this day other common childhood problems can be successfully looked into, so that a normogram for any region or country for administering vitamin A and education mothers can be prepared.