DOI: 10.36347/sjams.2019.v07i05.054

Pages: 1961-1963

Introduction: Malnutrition does not mean only undernutrition. It manifests in different forms like undernutrition, overnutrition, and micronutrient malnutrition. Health and physical consequences of prolonged states of malnourishment among children include delays in their physical growth and motor development, lower intelligence quotient (IQ) scores, greater behavioral problems and social skill deficiencies, susceptibility to contracting diseases etc. WHO recommendation is to use the z-score or standard deviation (SD) system to grade undernutrition. Children who are more than 2 SD below the reference median (i.e., a z score of less than −2) are considered to be moderately underweight. Children with measurements below 3 SD (a z score of less than −3) are considered to be severely underweight. Objectives: This study was undertaken to assess the nutritional status of under-5 children in a slum of Kolkata according to the z-score system of classification and to compare these results with the conventional IAP classification. Materials & Methods: Sample size was calculated based on prevalence. Data collection was done over a period of 3 months. Separate growth charts were used for boys and girls as per the WHO guidelines. Data were collected using pretested proforma and were analyzed using Microsoft Excel and other statistical softwares. Results & Analysis: The overall prevalence of underweight was 52.3%.The prevalence of female underweight was higher in all the age groups in comparison to male. Among the female participants, at least half or more than half were always remained underweight in any age group. The prevalence of normal children was higher according to z score system (47.7 vs 40.9), it measured four times higher prevalence of severely underweight than the IAP system. The IAP system identified 6.8% more children as underweight, whereas the z-score system identified 13.7% more children as severely underweight. Conclusion: The z-score system cannot measure the exa