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A study on health and nutritional status of children in rural and urban ICDS projects in Karimnagar

Background: Malnutrition is a major public health problem. It continues to be a primary cause of ill health and mortality among children in developing countries. Preschool age is an important stage of life where the nutrition plays an important role and has long lasting effects in the later years of life. Hence the objective of the present study was to assess the nutritional and health status of under-five children covered under the ICDS project.Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted during March 2013-February 2014 among 846 children attending the rural and urban anganwadi centers of Karimnagar ICDS project. A semi-structured questionnaire was used to collect data and was analyzed using Epi info version 7 and valid inferences were drawn.Results: It was observed in the present study that females (53.5%) were more compared to boys (46.5%), out of the total sample surveyed. In this study 87.6% were completely immunized and 12.4% were partially immunized. According to IAP classification of malnutrition, 27.7% children were mildly malnourished, 16.5% were moderately malnourished, 3.9 % were severely malnourished and 0.9 % was very severely malnourished.Conclusions: High prevalence of malnutrition was observed among children in both urban and rural area warrants urgent attention. ICDS projects should be periodically studied to evaluate the impact of interventions. Further exploratory studies are required to find of several risk factors of malnutrition.