Malnutrition and Morbidity Profile of Under Five Children: A Cross-Sectional Scenario in a Rural Area of Bangladesh

Abstract

Abbreviations: WHO, world health organization; IMCI, integrated management of childhood illness initiative; MUAC, mid upper arm circumference; CIOMS, council for international organizations of medical sciences Introduction Adequate nutrition during infancy and early childhood is fundamental to the development of each child's full human potential. 1 It is well recognized that the period from birth to two years of age is a "critical window" for the promotion of optimal growth, health and behavioral development. 2 Poor nutrition leads to ill-health and ill-health contributes to further deterioration in nutritional status. 1,2 Approximately 12 million children younger than 5years of age die every year; most of these children live in developing countries. More than 50% of these deaths are attributed to diarrhea, acute respiratory illness, malaria, or measles, conditions that are either preventable or treatable with low-cost interventions. 3 Although malnutrition is prevalent in developing countries, it is rarely cited as being among the leading causes of death. 2,3 In the early 1990s Pelletier and colleagues used a different approach to estimate the contribution of malnutrition to all-cause mortality in children. 4 Their analytical framework takes the underlying causes of death into account and it suggested that malnutrition (measured as poor anthropometric status) is an associated cause in about half of all deaths occurring among children in developing countries. 4,5 Although the association between malnutrition and all-cause mortality is well documented, the association between malnutrition and mortality attributed to specific causes is less well described. If malnutrition does not increase the risk of mortality from all causes of death equally, intervention programmes that succeed in improving nutritional status may not have the same potential for reducing children's mortality in regions with different disease profiles. 6 The synergistic relation between malnutrition and infection is well known, and nutritional interventions have been recognized as an important approach for reducing mortality from acute respiratory illness and diarrhoea. 7 The WHO Integrated Management of Childhood Illness initiative is based on the premise that combining efforts to promote the appropriate case-management of serious infectious diseases with nutritional interventions, immunization programmes, and other disease prevention and health promotion activities will be more effective in decreasing child mortality than implementing any one of the components alone. 8,9 Infectious diseases remain the most important immediate cause of death among children and of disability worldwide. 6 The burden of ill-health associated with these conditions is especially high in developing countries. Despite the progressive rise in chronic diseases as important causes of mortality, the epidemiological transition that is under way in the developing world does not reduce the need to continue investigating Abstract Introduction: Malnutrition particularly undernutrition has long been a major public health concern in southeast regions of Asia as a leading cause of child morbidity and mortality. The study was aimed to assess the malnutrition and morbidity profile in fewer than five children in a rural area of Bangladesh.