“Assessment of Nutritional Status of Rural Children (0-18 years) in Central India Using World Health Organization (WHO) Child Growth Standards 2007”

BACKGROUND: The World Health Organization (WHO) Child Growth Standards (“WHO Standards”) 2007 are the most recent and updated indicators which provide a single international standard that represents the best description of physiological growth for all children. OBJECTIVES: The objective of the study was to estimate the prevalence of malnutrition as per anthropometric indicators, namely underweight, stunting, and wasting among rural children in Raipur district, Chhattisgarh, using the WHO Child Growth Standards. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Nutritional assessment of children was conducted in rural areas using standard anthropometric measurements of height and weight. Totally 10,730 children were screened in 61 schools and 30 Anganwadis belonging to 26 villages across 3 major blocks in Raipur district, Chhattisgarh, during June 2013 to February 2018. Weight-for-age, height-for-age, and body mass index-for-age z-scores were calculated using WHO AnthroPlus software. RESULTS: The prevalence of underweight (≤2 standard deviation) was 45.7% in the children examined. The prevalence of stunting and wasting was 40.4% and 22.0%, respectively. Twenty-two of the 26 villages screened reported malnutrition in more than 30.0% of children, namely every third child lags behind in his or her growth curve despite the Mid-Day Meal Program implemented across the nation including this region since several decades. CONCLUSION: Malnutrition remains an ongoing health problem in school-going children. WHO AnthroPlus software can be very useful for analysis of state- and national-level data of nutritional status of children and could be used to shape health policies for this age group accordingly.