TO ASSESS NUTRITIONAL STATUS OF CHILDERN OF 1-5 YEARS AGE ATTENDING AT OPD SHEIKH ZAYED HOSPITAL RYK
Keywords:
Assessment, Nutritional status, From 1-5 year children, weight for ageAbstract
Introduction: Nutrition goes hand in hand with health. It is the basic necessity of life. Nutrition is the science of food and its relationship with health. While nutrients are the organic or inorganic complexes contained in food that are responsible for the function of food and so protect the body from disorders. A healthy diet also prevents weight related disorders. Study of nutritional status of children measures nutritional imbalance or malnourishment resulting Under-nutrition. It helps to identify high risk groups and access the role of different epidemiological factors in nutritional deficiency.
Objective: The study aims towards accessing the nutritional status of children under 1-5 years of age presented in children OPD of SZH to understand the variation of nutritional status of children presented by variables of weight and age.
Methodology: It is a descriptive type of cross-sectional study. The study was conducted in Rahim Yar Khan, Pakistan during April 2022 to July, 2022. The sample size is 90 children (1- 5 years of age ) presented in the SZH OPD. The data was collected through a questionnaire that contain information regarding the assessment of nutritional status of children according to WHO growth standards. The data was compared with the growth charts and summarized into tables, graphs and Bar Diagrams by using SPSS software.
Results: Out of 90 children presented in the OPD, 56 children that is 62.2% were having normal weight and 32 children (35.6%) were under weight and 2 children (2.2%) were overweight.
Conclusions: Considerable proportions presented in the OPD were Underweight. The nutritional status of children depends on the proper feeding and socioeconomic status of children. Those who are not proper breast feed were malnourished i.e., underweight and shorter. So, proper breast feeding and immunization and monitoring of growth of children should be done to ensure good nutritional health of children.