A Cross-Sectional Study to Measure Children's Morbidity Experience and Assess Dietary Intake during One Year Post-discharge from Nutritional Rehabilitation Center of Bhavnagar District of Gujarat

Introduction:Malnutrition is responsible for the high incidence of morbidity in children and vice a versa. This study has been conducted to assess the progress of the children after their discharge from Nutritional Rehabilitation Centre (NRC) by measuring the episodes of the common morbidities, they experienced during last one year and also to assess their current routine dietary intake. To evaluate morbidity experience and assess dietary intake of the children after one year of their discharge from NRC, Bhavnagar Objectives: To evaluate morbidity experience and assess dietary intake of the children after one year of their discharge from NRC, Bhavnagar Method:It was a community-based cross-sectional study carried out on all children who were discharged from NRC Bhavnagar between 1 April-2015 and 31 March-2016, conducted during the period between July 2016 and August 2017. The parents/guardians were interviewed by using the pretested, semi-structured questionnaire to collect the information regarding dietary practices and prevalence of childhood morbidities during last one year Results: Total 1071 episodes of illnesses were experienced during last one year by 152 children, who were discharged from NRC, Bhavnagar during the period under study. The most common morbidities found among the children were cough, cold and fever. Average number of episodes of morbidities among the normal children was 7.5 episodes/child/year, among malnourished children, it was 5.9 episodes/child/year among moderately malnourished children, it was 6.7 episodes/child/year. Average protein and calories intake of SAM and normal children across all agegroups were found almost equal to or more than the requirement according to their age Conclusion:Average number of episodes of morbidities experienced by the normal children, were higher than the number of episodes experienced by the malnourished children in the year following their discharge from