A necessary education intervention to parents has been proven to be statistically effective in improving the overall malnutrition status in primary children through a pilot study.

1. “EFFECTIVENESS OF THE EDUCATIONAL
INTERVENTION TO IMPROVE KNOWLEDGE ON
ESSENTIAL NUTRIENTS AMONG PARENTS OF
PRIMARY SCHOOL CHILDREN: A DESCRIPTIVE
STUDY”
Submitted By:
Supervisor:
Mrs. Vijayalakshmi Subendu Mukherjee
s044168
M.Sc. 2009 - 2010

2. INTRODUCTION & RATIONALE OF THE
STUDY
• Both protein-energy malnutrition and micronutrient deficiencies retards
physical and cognitive growth; increases susceptibility to infections.
• 820 million undernourished in developing countries: 524 million in Asia,
India has the largest number in the world; 250 million children below 10
years of age accounting for more 1/3rd of the Globe.
• Many previous studies have proved that one of the major factors of high child
malnutrition is maternal illiteracy or poor knowledge among mothers.
• Numbers of government programs implemented have been futile. 47%
Karnataka’s Child Population is malnourished.
• Growing children like primary school children are at maximum risk to be
affected from poor nutrition
• 22 % poverty rate but 47% Malnutrition rate. WHY?

3. AIMS AND OBJECTIVES
AIM:
• To assess the effect of educational intervention in developing knowledge on
essential nutrients among parents of primary school children.
OBJECTIVES:
Primary:
• To find out the effectiveness of the educational intervention in developing
knowledge on essential micro-nutrients among the parents of primary school
children.
Secondary:
• To determine the various factors influencing the nutritional status of primary
school children.
• To assess the nutritional status of the children and to determine the
prevalence of various types of malnutrition.
• To determine the prevalence of malnutrition in terms of child’s age and
gender.
•

4. MATERIALS & METHODS:
STUDY
SETTINGS Indiranagar & Koramangala ; BANGALORE
STUDY DESIGN Interventional, Non - randomized, Questionnaire
based, Descriptive case series study.
SAMPLE SIZE & 120; Frequency percent analysis, Descriptive
STATISTICAL Statistics – Cross Tabulation, Chi – square Analysis,
TOOLS Student t test
•Parents or Caregivers having atleast one children
aged between 3 to 10 years in the family.
INCLUSION •Child should be, a primary school going student, i.e. ,
studying within class nursery to standard five
•Parents or the caregivers could be able to read and
write in English.
EXCLUSION Subjects unwilling to give informed consent.

5. STUDY PROCEDURE
DESK ADMINISTRATIVE FIELD RESEARCH
RESEARCH FORMALITIES
Review of study
Extensive Web Search ANM was approached
documents by
ICRI SC.
Development of Study Door to Door evaluation of
Instruments STUDY Inclusion Criteria
APPROVAL
Preparation of
Informed Consent
Literature Review
section
Height & Weight of
the children
Post Score Noted
Part A of the questionnaire
Part B of the questionnaire Answered
Answered.
Study Intervention
- PPT Pre Score Noted Invited for Study
Intervention

6. RESULTS
• EFFECTIVENESS OF THE STUDY INTERVENTION:
Comparison t df p value
Pre - Post 12.919 119 .000
As per t- distribution table the value of t0.001 for df (119) is 3.37.
Therefore as |t| > t0.001 for df =119, H0 (null hypothesis) is rejected at
0.1% level of significance.
FACTORS v/s Nutritional Status.
SIGNIFICANT NON-SIGNIFICANT
FACTORS TOOLS p value FACTORS p value
Number of Chi- Square 0.38 [p<0.05 ] Family Income 0.652
Children Working Members 0.222
Outside Food Chi- Square 0.012 [p<0.05 ] Maternal Occupation 0.412
Intake
Maternal Education 0.512
Sanitary Chi- Square 0.042 [p<0.05 ]
Condition Drinking Water 0.932

7. PREVALENCE
Prevalence As per Age [NCHS]
19.17% Healthy
45.83 Stunted
18.33% Wasted
16.67% Both
Prevalence As per Gender
30.00%
25.00%
20.00%
Healthy
15.00%
10.00% Malnutri
5.00% tion
0.00%
BOY GIRL

8. Limitations:
• Social Desirability.
• Inadequate Timelines.
• Homogeneity.

9. Conclusion
• Study Intervention was found to be effective in developing
Knowledge among parents.
• 3 Factors; Number of Children in the Family, Frequency of Outside
Food intake, Sanitary condition of the residing area were found to be
negatively associated to nutritional status.
• As per NCHS scale majority of the study children suffered from
either form of malnutrition which were stunting, wasting or both.
• No difference in prevalence based on Gender. Micro-nutrient
deficiency in terms of Anthropometric measurements were found to
be much more higher in children aged 3 – 5 years compared to older
children.

10. Future Work
• Study on larger population for larger period with an inclusion of a
follow up period.
• Randomized design with an inclusion of a control arm could be used
within the study population to evaluate the effectiveness of the study
intervention between interventional arm and control arm in a more
robust way.
• Study findings can be used as basis by government in developing
stronger strategic plan to tackle these health problems such as
sanitation problem etc.

11. REFERENCES
• http://192.91.247.105/aboutwfp/facts/hunger_facts.asp?section=1&su
b_section=5.
• http://www.azadindia.org/social-issues/child-labour-in-india.html
• http://whqlibdoc.who.int/hq/1997/WHO_NUT_97.4.pdf.
• http://www.ibfanasia.org/Article/IYC-Undernutrition.pdf
• http://www.sikhspectrum.com/112006/images/map.jpg