Prevalence of undernutrition and change detection among under-five children of EAG states in India: scrutinizing from NFHS-4 and NFHS-5

AbstractBackground: Nowadays undernutrition among the under five children is a serious public health problem in the developing countries like India. There are EAG states in India which are socio-economically backward in term of demographic and epidemiological transition, characterized by high population growth rate, high infant child morality and high fertility. The current study was conducted to assess the changes of the indicator of undernutrition with the help of anthropometric measurement of under five children and represent the current (NFHS-5, 2019-21) prevalence of child undernutrition among the EAG states of India. Methods The state level data of undernutrition were extracted from state fact sheet of India, published by NFHS, India. The study is based on two time series of NFHS (NFHS-4 & NFHS-5. The changes of undernutrition indices in the EAG states were estimated by differentiate the last series prevalence from the previous series prevalence. Also thematic map were used to show spatial distribution of undernutrition indices of the latest NFHS series (NFHS-5). Result From the result it is found that the prevalence of stunting and underweight are decreased in all the EAG states and the decreasing pattern is more than the national level but the prevalence of wasting is only increased in Bihar. The NFHS-5 report shows that the prevalence of stunting and underweight in most of the EAG states has still more than 30%. Conclusions To reduce undernutrition among under-5 children there is need some target oriented policies which will help in improving the socio economic status of the children’s family as well as maternal and child health. Enhance the level of education of mothers, awareness and raising the economic as well as socio-political empowerment of mothers is essential to reduce the undernutrition status. This study will be beneficial for the health workers and policy makers to understand the prevalence and changing pattern of undernutrition among the children of EAG states.