Impact of intervention programme on nutritional status among mothers and children in EAG states, India

<p>Rajeev Kumar and Balram Paswan</p>

Impact of intervention programme on nutritional status among mothers and children in EAG states, India

Rajeev Kumar and Balram Paswan

International Institute for Population Sciences, India

: Int J Ment Health Psychiatry

Abstract

Reduction of undernutrition is a major public health challenges for both developing and developed countries. Despite the impressive economic growth, India experienced pervasive and persistent child and mother malnourishment. According to NFHS-IV, around 38% of India's children aged 0-5 years are stunted while 36% underweighted. Indian women Age 15-49 years around 23% are below the normal BMI. Approximately 31% of women age 15-49 are below the normal BMI in Jharkhand and Bihar. The nutritional status of women in such states Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Chhatisgarh, Odisha, Uttar Pradesh is also in below the national level. In Bihar, around 48% and 44% children under five years are stunted and underweighted respectively. This cleary indicates that in EAG states the nutritional status of the mothers and children are are below the satisfactory level. The main objective of the study is to assess the impact of supplementary food on the nutritional status of mothers and children. NFHS is a nationwide cross-section demographic health survey which provides the data about utilization of ICDS nutrition and services states and district level. Propensity score matching method and regression analysis have used for this study. The propensity score is the conditional probability of assignment to a particular treatment given a vector of observed covariates. Daily feeding is the dummy variable with the value one for a child who received supplementary nutrition through ICDS daily. The study shows that a nationwide around 26% children under five received supplementary food from an aganwadi center. rajeevkumar@iips.net