Nutritional Status of Under-five Siblings of Severely Wasted Children in Bhopal

Yachana Choudhary; Bharat Choudhary; Manju Dubey; Dinesh Kumar Pal; Herschel Dafal

Nutritional Status of Under-five Siblings of Severely Wasted Children in Bhopal

Indian Pediatr. 2022 Feb 15;59(2):117-119. Epub 2022 Jan 5.

Authors

Yachana Choudhary¹, Bharat Choudhary², Manju Dubey¹, Dinesh Kumar Pal¹, Herschel Dafal¹

Affiliations

¹ Department of Community Medicine, Gandhi Medical College, Bhopal, Madhya Pradesh.
² Department of Trauma and Emergency (Pediatrics), All India Institute of Medical Sciences, Jodhpur, Rajasthan. Correspondence to: Dr Bharat Choudhary, Department of Pediatrics, All India Institute of Medical Sciences, Basni Industrial Area Phase II, Jodhpur, Rajasthan. drbharatpaeder@gmail.com.

PMID: 34992184

Abstract

Objective: To study the prevalence and associated factors of undernutrition in siblings of children with severe acute malnutrition (SAM).

Method: It was a community-based cross-sectional study of under-five year siblings of children with SAM.

Results: A total of 128 under-five years siblings were studied, 30% had SAM whereas 20% had moderate acute malnutrition (MAM). More than 7 members in a family (OR=4.23, CI 1.9-9.6, P<0.001), underweight mothers (OR=5.2, CI 2.08-13.0, P<0.001), children who received pre-lacteal feeds (OR=3.24, CI 1.33-7.87, P=0.007), and Muslim religion (OR=4.44, CI 1.78-11.1, P<0.001) were significantly associated with finding of another child with SAM in the family.

Conclusion: There was high proportion of severe malnutrition in siblings of children with SAM. Consideration should be given to actively screen all under-5 children in the family of a newly diagnosed child with SAM for undernutrition.

MeSH terms

Child
Cross-Sectional Studies
Female
Humans
Infant
Malnutrition* / diagnosis
Malnutrition* / epidemiology
Nutritional Status
Severe Acute Malnutrition*
Siblings