Very High Prevalence of Thinness Among Rural Bengalee Preschool Children of Integrated Child Development Service (ICDS) Scheme of Sagar Island, South 24 Parganas, West Bengal, India

Objective: To assess the prevalence of thinness among 3.0-5.5 years old preschool children of integrated child development services (ICDS) scheme of Sagar Block, South 24 Parganas, West Bengal, India. Methods: This cross-sectional study was conducted among 656 preschool children (326 boys and 330 girls). Height (cm) and weight (kg) measurements were taken according to standard procedure. The body mass index (BMI) of the subjects were categorised according to the new international cut-off point for thinness proposed by Cole et al. Low BMI for age was defined as thinness and age sex specific cut off values of mild, moderate and severe grades of thinness as proposed by Cole et al. Results: The age combined mean BMI were 13.48 (±0.92) kg/m2 for boys and 13.30 (±1.00) kg/m2 for girls. Sex combined mean BMI was 13.39 (±0.96) kg/m2. The mean BMI showed a decreasing trend irrespective of sex up to age of 4.5 year. Over all (age combined) sex difference in mean BMI was observed (t=2.37; p<0.05) and age specific sex differences in mean BMI were also noticed at the age of 3.0 (t= 2.27; p<0.05) and 3.5 (t=3.02; p<0.05) years. The age combined prevalence of thinness among the boys and girls were 81.90% and 80.61%, respectively. Sex combined prevalence rate of thinness was 81.25%. The highest prevalence rates of thinness were found to be 96.83% in age group 5 years for boys and for girls it was 100% in age group of 5.5 years. The maximum numbers (41.86%) of normal nutritional status individuals were observed for boys at age group 3.5 years and for girls it was 34.00% at age 4 years. Conclusion: The results of the present study clearly indicated that the nutritional status of these subjects is poor because of the existence of high-level of thinness. Findings of the present study would be very useful for the effective formulation of health and nutritional intervention programmes with the objective of reducing preschool undernutrition in terms of thinness. Therefore, appropriate effective measures should be under taken to reduce this high rate thinness.