A Comparative study to assess the Growth and Development of Toddlers in Rural and Urban areas

A Comparative study to assess the growth and development of toddlers in rural and urban areas was under taken by Mis.Kavitha, A in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of master of science in nursing under Dr.M.G.R. medical university , Chennai. OBJECTIVES: 1. To assess the growth and development of toddlers in rural and urban areas. 2. To compare the growth and development of toddlers in rural and urban areas. 3. To find out the relationship between growth and development of toddlers in rural and urban areas. 4. To find out the association between the growth of toddlers with selected demographic variables in rural and urban areas. 5. To find out the association between the development of toddlers with selected demographic variables in rural and urban areas. Conceptual frame work : Donabedian’s model (1980). Research design : Descriptive comparative design. Population : Toddlers. Sample size : 180 samples 60 for 13-18 months, 60 for 19-24months and 60 for 25-30 months. Sampling : Non – probability convenience sampling. Setting : Community area. Rural : Thiruppuraithurai. Urban : Srirangam Tool : Anthropometric assessment (Growth), Observation check list (Development). Data Collection : Assessment and observation was done 1½ -2 hours for each sample per day. Data analysis : Descriptive and inferential statistics were used by using SPSS version 13.0 Result: The study showed that Major finding: Majority of the toddlers were in first degree stunting and grade I malnutrition in rural area. The study shows that majority of children were nourished in rural areas. The ‘t’ test shows that the weight and mid arm circumference mean score of urban toddler was greater than the mean score of rural toddlers. There was significant positive correlation between Growth and development of rural and urban toddlers. Significant association found between the growth and demographic variable family income. Significant association found between the development and demographic variable education of mother. CONCLUSION: Majority of the toddlers were in first degree stunting and grade I malnutrition in rural area. The study shows that majority of children were malnourished in rural areas. The study findings also implies that there exits significant association between income with weight and education with cognitive development. Furthermore, this information would be valuable to show the way forward for improving the growth and development of rural children