Association between nutritional status of selected urban and rural school children and their mothers from Mysore

Nutrition is the most important contributor of health during the growing years of human beings. Nutritional status of children is influenced by several factors, such as the living conditions comprising of sanitary, environmental, social and economic situation of family, the literacy level of parents, food intake of children, etc. In addition, the nutritional status of mothers also influences the nutritional status of children. Malnutrition persists across ail the age groups of life span. Nutritional problems during school age is shown to affect adversely on attendance, performance and learning ability of the children. Country wide surveys indicate that more than half of the Indian children suffer from sub-clinical undernutrition as indicated by low weight for age and 65 per cent of them are stunted (low height for age) indicating long duration undernutrition. Nutritional status of children from rural area has been shown to be associated with their mother's dietary intake and nutritional status as well as the economic status of the family. Similar observations were also noted by Kulsum et al5 for children residing in urban slums of Mysore city