Anthropometric Assessment of Children (1-6 Years) Attending Anganwadi in Rural Field Practice Area of Gulbarga Institute of Medical Sciences, Kalaburagi.

Context/Background: Undernutrition is conventionally assessed by prevalence of stunting, underweight and wasting. These methods even though widely used, do not give single measure of assessment of undernutrition. CIAF (Composite measure of anthropometer failure) gives single, comprehensive figure, as it identifies all the children experiencing anthropometric failure. Stunting Index, Underweight Index and Wasting index further identifies severity of individual parameter in relation to total undernutrition. Aims/Objectives: To estimate prevalence of undernutrition among 1–6-year children by conventional methods like stunting, underweight and wasting along with other methods like CIAF and anthropometric indices like Stunting Index (SI), Underweight Index (UI) and Wasting Index (WI). Methodology: A community based cross-sectional study was undertaken among 206 children belonging to 5 anganwadi centres in rural field practice area of department of community Medicine, GIMS Kalaburagi Karnataka. Results: Overall prevalence of stunting was 51.9%, underweight was 35% and wasting was 20%. CIAF (Composite Index of Anthropometric failure) was 65.5%. Stunting Index, Underweight Index and Wasting Index was 0.79, 0.53 and 0.30 respectively. Stunting was widely prevalent among boys and girls suffered more from wasting and underweight. Conclusions: CIAF should be widely used in assessing undernutrition in community along with Anthropometric Indices.