Publication:

Composite index of anthropometric failure among under 5 children attending the Immunoprophylaxis clinic in a tertiary care hospital in Nagpur, Maharashtra, India

Background Under nutrition is a global public health problem. There are numerous methods of assessment of malnutrition among which CIAF is the most recent, relatively robust since it envisages all the parameters for estimation of nutritional status of the children. So, this study was conducted to find the rates of composite index of anthropometric failure in the children attending the Immunoprophylaxis clinic in a tertiary care hospital of Nagpur and to find associations with the socio demographic variables.

Methods This descriptive cross-sectional study was conducted at the Immunoprophylaxis clinic of a tertiary care institute in Nagpur from September 2016 to January 2017. The study subjects were the children attending the OPD of Immunoprophylaxis clinic of a tertiary care hospital. Necessary permissions were taken before the start of the study. Data was collected using pretested and pre-designed questionnaire. Height and weight were measured using standard guidelines and categorized into groups of CIAF as described by Nandy et al.

Results A total of 460 study subjects were enrolled in the study. The mean age group of the study subjects was 2.47±1.56 years. According to the grades of CIAF, 48.51% were having no failure. Age and gender were factors which were associated with failure status by CIAF.

Conclusions We found high rates of anthropometric failure in our study. The age groups less than 3 years had higher odds of being in failure when compared to more than 3 years age. Further, males had higher odds of being into failure when compared to females. Community based studies are recommended.