The Barriers and Factors Influencing the Overall Health Status and Treatment of Severe Acute Malnourished (SAM) Children

Page: 482-486
Neeru (Swarna Jayanti Haryana Institute for Fiscal Management, Panchkula, Haryana)

Severe acute malnutrition (SAM) is the deadliest form of malnutrition, affecting 19 million children worldwide. It is considered a medical disorder, specifically associated with losing body fat and wasting skeletal muscles. SAM was defined as weight-for-height Z-score and lt; -3 SD according to the (WHO, 2006) Growth Standards, MUAC <115 mm, or the presence of oedema. Infants and young children below the age of 5 years are the most vulnerable as their nutritional needs are higher for growth and development; keeping this in view, the present work was conducted on SAM children. One of the study’s main objectives was to investigate and explore the barriers and factors affecting SAM children with complications admitted at various inpatient facilities known as Nutritional Rehabilitation centres (NRCs). This was a cross-sectional study. Purposive sampling was used and the subjects were the SAM children (age 0-59 months) qualifying the standard criteria for admission at various NRCs of Shivpuri district, Madhya Pradesh. Mothers of SAM children were also included in the study. The major findings were that there were many risks and barriers found which hinder the good nutritional status among children and mothers. The major risk factors were low socio-economic status (BPL), lack of knowledge of mothers regarding feeding practices (exclusive breastfeeding, colostrum, weaning), unsafe and poor drinking water, poor hygiene and sanitation, repeated infections in children, poor hand washing practices, illiteracy among mothers and addictive behaviour of father, etc. Seasonal month-wise variations were common in every block. Maximum children were admitted during the time of rainy season followed by summers.