Assessment of Nutritional Status Using Anthropometric Index and its Associated Factors Among Under-Five Children in India: A Cross-Sectional Study from the National Family Health Survey-V (2019–2021)

Document Type

Book Chapter

Publication Title

Public Health and Nutrition the South Asian and Southeast Asian Landscape

Abstract

Malnutrition in early life, either undernutrition or overnutrition, can be the underlying cause of many noncommunicable diseases. Now a days, child growth failure is an enduring public health concern in lower- and middle-income families. The Composite Index of Anthropometric Failure (CIAF) helps us in understanding the child's nutritional status. CIAF can intensively identify undernutrition by combining several indicators of nutritional status—namely, weight-for-age, height-for-age, and weight-for-height. The National Family Health Survey (2019–2021) of India has unrolled the opportunity to reexamine the use of CIAF and its determinants. Therefore, the present study aims to assess undernutrition using CIAF and its determinants on children under five in India. The present paper availed data on 232, 920 children of age less than 59 months from the latest cross-sectional study of the National Family Health Survey (2019–2021). The nutritional status of the children was assessed by measuring weight and height. CIAF and conventional indices were used for assessing the nutritional status of the children. The independent variables studied were mother's age during childbirth, height, educational attainment, working status, body mass index, anemic status, gestational period of childbearing, religion, caste, regional geographic division, wealth index, age, sex, and food habits of the child. Binary logistic regression was used to explore the determinants of CIAF. Among under-five children, 49.1 percent experienced anthropometric failure (overall prevalence of undernutrition based on the CIAF). Assessment of nutritional status by conventional anthropometric index revealed that prevalence of underweight, stunted, and wasted were 34.6%, 30.5%, and 16.6%, respectively. Binary regression revealed that mother's age during childbirth, height, educational attainment, BMI, anemia, gestational period of childbearing, geographical zones, wealth index, and age of child had a significant association with both composite indices and conventional indices. The sex of the child showed a significant relationship with composite indices, whereas in conventional indices underweight showed no significant relationship with sex of the child. Breastfed children were found to perform better than semisolid-fed and solid-food-fed children.

First Page

3

Last Page

12

DOI

10.1007/978-981-97-7890-4_2

Publication Date

1-1-2024

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