Alarming Prevalence of Stunting in Alavi Bohra Community Muslim Children: A Cross-Sectional Mother-Child Dyads Study

Alavi Bohra Shia Muslims are a very closely-knit community of Yemeni migrants in India. The present study aimed at understanding the nutritional status and infant feeding practices of mother-child dyads (under 5y) in this community. A cross-sectional study, all the mother and child dyads (under 5y), (n=125 pairs) from the Alavi Bohra community were enrolled based on consent (IECHR/ FCSc/PhD/2021/124). Quantitative and ethnographic qualitative methods were used to elicit data on the anthropometric indices, background information, and infant and child feeding practices. Over 82.4 % of mothers (mean age 29.9y) lived in joint families, the average birth weight of children was 2.75 kg (mean age 27m; range 2 days to 59m) and 27.2% of children were low birth weight. Over 53% of mothers did not breastfeed within the first hour of birth. Classification using WHO Anthro Software indicated that 69.6% of children were stunted (low Ht/Age) with 32.0, 20.8 and 16.8% mild, moderate, and severe stunting respectively 45.6% were underweight (low Wt/Age) and 19.2% were wasted (low Wt/Ht). The nutritional status of mothers significantly correlated with stunting, however, no significant differences were recorded for other covariates such as mother’s age, education, and feeding practices and less than 5% were enrolled in any Government food security nets. Urgent targeted evidence-based interventions and culturally tailored strategies to be adopted by mother-child dyads of the Alavi Bohra Community.