Abstract :
Background: Malnutrition and morbidities among under-five children is a major public health problem in
India.
Objective: To assess the morbidity status of children under five years of age in a rural community of District
Ghaziabad.
Materials and Methods: A community based cross sectional study was conducted in the villages of
district Ghaziabad using multistage simple random sampling technique. The survey was done by using
a pretested proforma along with clinical examination and anthropometric measurements of un-der-five
children. Analysis was done using MS excel 2013.
Results: More than a third of the children had nutritional health problems like Stunting in 36.9% of
children, followed by 31.1% underweight and 20% suffered from wasting. Diarrhoea was most common
morbidity, accounting for 36.5% children & ARI affected 30.9% of the children.
Discussion: Diarrhoea, Acute Respiratory Tract Infection and malnutrition were found to be major
morbidities among the children, accounting for around one third of them.
Conclusion: Healthy children grow-up to build healthy nation in future. Hence capacity building of parents
for early health seeking and strengthening grass root level health workers is essential to act timely in
managing these morbidities.
Keyword :
Acute respiratory tract infection, Diarrhoea, National family health survey, Under-5 children, Under-nutrition.