An Intervention Study in Malnutrition Among Infants in a Tribal Community of West Bengal

Is nutrition education of mothers effective in maintaining good nutritional status of their children?

To study the magnitude of the problem and to assess the impact of nutrition advice given to mothers of infants, on the nutritional status of their children suffering from severe degree of malnutrition.

Community based intervention study

Jamboni block in Midnapore district of West Bengal, consisting mainly of tribal population.

300 infants selected from the infant register of 6 sub centres by systematic random sampling, the sub centres in turn being selected by simple random sampling using lottery method.

Z test of proportion, Paired t test.

Prevalence of malnutrition was 50.67% among the infants. Malnutrition was more common in females than males but this was not significant (p>0.05). Grade I malnutrition was more among males, while grade II and III were more in females. None were suffering from grade IV malnutrition. Prevalence also increased with increasing age and it was significantly more (p<0.001) among infants >6 months of age than among those < 6 months. Post intervention follow up after nutrition education of mothers showed an average increase of 80.81 grams of the weight of their severely malnourished infants, over the expected weight gain. Paired t test, however, was not significant (p>0.05).

Nutrition education of mothers of infants has a positive effect on the nutritional status of their children.