An Overview of Nutritional Status of Two Different Minority Community of India

Background:  Nutritional status of the population of a nation is an important indicator of development of the country. Childhood malnutrition is an important factor responsible for high infant, maternal mortality rate and for low birth weight. Objective: To compare the distribution of malnutrition amongst under five children of two linguistically different Muslim communities in Howrah in West Bengal and Gulbarga in Karnataka respectively and to study the influence of immunization upon this distribution. Method: A community based cross sectional study was carried out among 250 children aged less than 5 years in two Muslim communities in two states of India namely West Bengal in Eastern India and Karnataka in Southern India during the period from August 2009 – October 2009. The data collection was done by house to house survey by two teams, each comprising of one Medico social worker and one Assistant Professor from the department of Community Medicine. For data collection a pre-designed and pre-tested interview schedule was used and it was followed by clinical and anthropometric measurement of the children. Result:  It was observed that amongst the children studied , the prevalence of mild and severe degree malnutrition was higher in the studied district of Gulbarga in Karnataka (30%) and (20.8%) respectively as compared to Howrah in West Bengal; where it was found to be (25.2%) and (8.4%) respectively. Severe degree malnutrition was higher amongst females (52.4%) in Howrah as compared to Gulbarga where it was higher (59.6%) amongst males. It was also seen that in Howrah mild degree malnutrition was higher in the 24mths – 47mths age group children while in Gulbarga it was higher in the 24 mths – 35mths. The proportion of partial immunization and non- immunization amongst the studied under five children was more in Gulbarga 32.79% and 16.39%