Prevalence of Undernutrition among Santal Tribal Preschool Children of Paschim Medinipur District, West Bengal, India

Introduction To assess the overall nutritional status of Santal tribal preschool children of Paschim Medinipur district, West Bengal, India. Methods and Materials A cross sectional study was conducted from February 2012 to September, 2012 of a Santal community in the rural area of Paschim Medinipur district, West Bengal. The study children were selected multi stage cluster sampling method. The level of underweight, stunting and wasting was assessed using standard deviation (SD) classification as against National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS) reference standards. Results This study comprises of 299 (boys=153, girls=146) Santal preschool children age between 0-5 years to assess the prevalence of underweight, stunting and wasting. The overall prevalence of underweight was 65.2%, out of, 54.2% and 11.0% children are found to be moderate and severe underweight. It is found that the severe underweight was significantly higher among girls than boys (15.1% vs 7.2%, p < 0.05). The girls had 2.3 fold greater risk of being severely underweight. Overall the prevalence of stunting was 54.2%. Among them, 31.4% and 22.7% children were experiencing moderate and severe stunting. Moreover, the overall prevalence of wasting was 20.1%, out of, 17.4% and 2.7% children were found to be moderate and severe wasting. Conclusion According to World Health Organization (WHO) classification for assessing severity of malnutrition, this study found very high rates of malnutrition in the form of underweight, stunting and wasting, indicating a critical situation. Therefore, respective authority should be undertaken an effective public health strategy to combat child malnutrition among socio-economically vulnerable communities in India and adjoining countries.