Socio-demographic and Morbidity Pattern among Under-Five Children in Rural Areas of Adilabad District of Telangana, India

Abstract

Introduction: The health and well-being among children is an important parameter for the measurement of the progress of a nation, which is also most precious asset in the community for socio-economic development in long run. It is not wise to neglect the health rights of the children in the process of nation building. The under-five children are the most vulnerable group in a society in which there is lack of guarantee for adequate nutrition and social protection. The lack of essential health services ultimately leads to childhood diseases like diarrhoea, respiratory infections, and measles in various parts of India. Aim: To understand the socio-demographic and morbidity pattern among the children of under five years in a district of Telangana state, India. Materials and Methods: A cross-sectional study was undertaken by interviewing mothers with the help of a predesigned and pretested questionnaire to understand the morbidity pattern of children under five years in the rural areas of Adilabad district, Telangana, India. The study was conducted in March 2015 in 30 villages. The study assessed various determinates of morbidity by applying scientific principles. The sample size was calculated as 210. The data was analysed by using MS Excel spread sheet and Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) software to understand the morbidity pattern. Descriptive statistical tests were done to find out the results. Results: The result confirms that 154 (73.33%) of the children under five years have several forms of morbidities. The most common morbidity was Acute Respiratory Infection (ARI) (25.71%), which is followed by worm infestation (8.09%), diarrhoea (20%), fever (7.61%), scabies (7.61%), asthma (2.3%) and seizure (fits) (1.9%) in last three months from the data collection. All these diseases are prevalent in rural areas of high concern due to the impeding morbidity and mortality. Conclusion: The ARI and diarrhoea were found to be the cause of concern among under-five children, which dominate the morbidity pattern. The factors responsible with such precarious situation were deeply entrenched conditions like illiteracy, poor socio-economic conditions, poor environmental sanitation, and increased birth order among the population.