ABSTRACT:
Background - The children below six years are particularly vulnerable to infection, malnutrition, dental caries etc, and need special care. The child development and health status of pre-school children can be studied in so many perspectives, hence investing on children today can be the best possible strategies for future development. Therefore the study designed to assess the health status of pre-school children in selected rural anganwadi centers at Akluj. Aims and Objective –To determine the health status of rural pre-school children in terms of physical assessment. To determine the health status of rural pre-school children in terms of nutritional assessment. To find the association of health status (physical) of pre-school children with selected demographic variables. Material and Methods – Data was collected from 60 samples with questionnarie and observation checklist to evaluate the health status of pre-school children in anganwadi. Assessment done from 0 day, 7 day and follow up to observe health status of samples. Result - majority 35% (21) of the subjects were of 4yrs of age, only least 8.5% (5) were of 2yrs of age, remaining 28.3% (17) were of 3yrs of age, 28.3% were of 5years age. 45% (27) of subject were male and 55% (33) were female. In relation to religion majority 93.3% (56) of subject were Hindus and remaining 6.7% (4) were Muslim with regard to birth order 70% (42) of pre – school children were first child in their family and remaining 30% (18) were second child. In relation to place of delivery 83.3% (50) were delivered in hospital and 16.7% (10) were delivered in home. Considering the mode of delivery 88.3% (53) were delivered by full term normal delivery and 11.7% (7) were delivered by LSCS. Conclusion - The present study assessed the physical status and nutritional status of pre-school children who are attending anganwadi. The study findings revealed that majority of the subjects who attend Anganwadi centres were in the age group of 2 to 5 years. The most common illness, which affected pre-school-child population, was fever and acute respiratory tract infection. It was observed that majority of the subjects (40) who attended Anganwadi centres had very good health states (score 50-64). Major area of deviation from normal was nasal discharge (20), dental caries (26) and tooth deposits (14) Majority of the subjects 81% had normal height, weight, mid-arm circumference and only 19% of the subjects had their height below ICMR mean height. Nutritional status of subjects studied was satisfactory compared to NFHS-2 data. There were only 18 subjects (8%) among 3 years. 25% among 4 years and 35.7% among 5 years) having Grade-1 Mild) Mal-nutrition.