Effect of Nutritional Intervention among Children with Protein Energy Malnutrition

Nutritional problems like protein energy malnutrition (PEM), anemia and vitamin A deficiency continue to plague a large proportion of Indian children. Faulty feeding practices and recurrent infections make this age group more vulnerable¹. A quasi experimental one group pretest post test study was conducted among 109 under five children in Koayam district to determine the effectiveness of nutritional intervention to the children with protein energy malnutrition. The study population consisted of 109 children in the age group of 2–5 years and their mothers aending selected anganwadies of Koayam District, during the period of data collection. The subjects were selected by using non probability purposive sampling technique. To identify the effectiveness of nutritional interventional programme of PEM repeated measures ANOVA was used. Mauchly's W test was used to check the homogeneity of variances. Since the P value (0.051) is more than 0.05, the variances are equal. The P value for the factor, sphericity assumed is <0.05 (F=114.403). Hence there is a difference in mean PEM over a period of time. It indicates the nutritional intervention is effective. Keeping in mind the results obtained in this study reveals the need for multi pronged approach like maternal and child health care, nutrition education and growth monitoring to combat the problem of malnutrition.