Morbidity Profile of under-five children residing in rural area of North Karnataka

Abstract

Context: Children under five years of age constitute approximately 15% of the country’s total population and are the most vulnerable section of the society and suffer from highest morbidity. The major diseases affecting this age group are mostly acute diarrheal diseases, acute respiratory infections, anaemia, skin infections, ear discharge, eye infections etc. Aims: To find the morbidity profile of under-five children in a rural area and also to find out the association between nutritional status and morbidity. Settings and Design: Cross sectional study. Methods and Material: This study was carried out from January – December 2011 in Primary health centre, Handignur, Belgaum among children between 1-5 years of age who were selected by using simple random sampling method. Totally 933 children were included in the study. Every child was subjected to thorough clinical examination and anthropometric measurements in the anganwadi. Statistical analysis used: Chi-square test was used for testing association between morbidity and nutritional status. Results: In the present study, 933 children in the age group of 1-5 years were studied for the assessment of morbidity pattern. Among these, 48.55% were males and 51.45% were females. Nutritional status of children assessed by WHO classification showed that 21.9% were wasted, 32.3% were underweight and 34.1% were stunted. Acute respiratory infections were the most commonly reported morbidity (15.9%) in the past 15 days, followed by fever (4.9%). Acute Gastroenteritis was reported in 3.5% of children and eye, ENT and skin together contributed 3.6%. Conclusions: Acute respiratory infections and diarrheal diseases were common among under five children though Govt. of India has made sincere efforts to improve the overall health of under-five children using a multi- pronged approach under NRHM.