Prevalence of Malnutrition Among the Mising Children of Northeast India: A Comparison Between Four Different Sets of Criteria

BACKGROUND: Prevalence of malnutrition among the children from developing countries has reached unprecedented level which can be evaluated by body mass index. AIM: This study was designed to determine the prevalence of malnutrition among the Mising children of Northeast India using four different sets of Body Mass Index references. MATERIALS AND METHODS: A cross-sectional study was performed on a population representative sample of 511 Mising children. Four different sets of Body Mass Index reference were used to define thinness as well as overweight cases. RESULTS: With the use of different references the prevalence of thinness varies from 17.18% to 27.73% among the boys and from 19.21% to 28.23% among the girls. On the other hand the prevalence of overweight varies from 1.95% to 7.81% among the boys and 1.96% to 9.41% among the girls. Reference based on United States (1971-74) survey detects sex difference in overweight. The calculated kappa values indicated a fair to almost perfect agreement between various references. CONCLUSION: Considerable prevalence of overweight despite a persistently high burden of thinness suggests existence of nutrition transition among the Mising population. Prevalence of malnutrition differs with the application of different references which warrants application of international references carefully for any potential misclassification of children.