Comparison of nutritional status of under-five Indian children (NFHS 4 Data) using WHO 2006 charts and 2019 Indian synthetic charts
Open Access
- 1 January 2021
- journal article
- Published by Medknow in Indian Journal of Endocrinology and Metabolism
- Vol. 25 (2), 136-141
- https://doi.org/10.4103/ijem.ijem_18_21
Abstract
There is a growing body of evidence against using World Health Organization (WHO) charts for developing nations. Our objectives were: 1) To compare nutritional status of th National Family Health Survey (n ~ 236117, 0--59-month-old children) were used for assessing nutritional status using the WHO charts and SC. Z-scores were calculated for length/height, weight, and weight-for-height (WAZ) using both charts. Children were classified into degrees of malnutrition using appropriate cutoffs. Stunting, wasting, and underweight were significantly higher using WHO charts. The prevalence of stunting (height for age) and wasting (WHZ) changed from high to medium and critical to poor when the reference changed from WHO to SC. All Z-scores showed an improving trend with increasing wealth index. On SC, almost all WHZ (wasting) from the richest to poorer were >-0.5 (clinically significant), whereas on WHO charts all wealth classes had WHZ <-0.5. For children under the age of 6 months, WHZ from richest to poorest was between -0.97 and -0.89 by WHO and 0.27 and 0.38 by SC. Use of Indian synthetic growth charts for growth monitoring of under-five children may be more appropriate; infants under 6 months and children from well off families performed well on these charts.Keywords
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