Impact of Nutrition Education on the Mothers of Anaemic Pre-School Children

A nutritional survey was conducted on seventy six anaemic pre-school children aged 1 to 4 years belonging to low income families of three urban slums of Ludhiana district and impact of nutrition education on the mothers of the subjects was evaluated. The adequacy of energy and protein in both the groups (1–3 and 3–4 years) was 55 and 48 per cent and 52 and 68 per cent respectively. The intake of vitamin C, folic acid, iron and calcium was inadequate as compared to RDA. The average haemoglobin of the subjects was 7.59 ± 0.14 g/d which was below the normal value. On the basis of haemoglobin classification, 62 per cent were moderately anaemic, 30 per cent were mildly anaemic and 8 per cent were severly anaemic. The PCV, MCH and MCHC values were below the normal range. This indicates that anaemia present in the subjects was hypochromic type. Various clinical deficiency symptoms were also observed among all the subjects. The stool examination showed that 64 per cent had helminth parasitic infestations. The results of nutrition education revealed that the quantum of improvement in knowledge was 1.51 times, attitides was 1.50 times and practices was 1.39 times. Thus, the mothers learnt to a considerable extent after receiving nutrition education.