ROOPAK GOSWAMI
Shillong, Nov 14: Despite positive steps taken by Meghalaya government in the health sector, there are still challenges as a recent study shows childhood illness highest in the state in Northeast.
The study, Health Matters: A Statistical Approach to Understanding Childhood Illnesses in the North-East States of India, 2019–2021, analyzed data from the National Family Health Survey-5 (NFHS-5) and spotlighted the urgent health challenges affecting children under five in Meghalaya and surrounding states. The study has been published this month in BMC Public Health journal.
The research highlights Meghalaya as the state with the highest reported cases of diarrhoea, fever and ARI among children.
“We found that among the northeastern states, prevalence of diarrhoea in Meghalaya was nearly 10 percent( age group of 6-12 months) followed by Tripura with 6 percent. In contrast, the lowest prevalence was Nagaland with 3.4 percent children suffering diarrhoea. Except Mizoram where the prevalence of diarrhoea among children was 4.3 percent, all four states had diarrhoea nearly 5 percent. For the entire northeastern region, the prevalence was nearly 6 percent” the study says.
The study also observed that within the entire north east states 6 -12 months old children have a high prevalence with diarrhoea. In India, diarrhoea stands as the third leading cause of childhood mortality.
The data indicated a statistically significantly higher prevalence of fever in Meghalaya (23%) and lowest in Arunachal Pradesh (9%). In most cases, urban areas showed a higher prevalence than rural areas. Among children, females exhibited a notably higher prevalence with fever than male and children with stunted growth.
“Meghalaya exhibits the highest prevalence of fever in children aged 6–12 months and 1–2 years old, at the same time Meghalaya records the highest rates among children aged 2–5 years” the study reveals.
Similarly in Acute Respiratory Infection (ARI), the data highlighted the statistically significantly higher prevalence of ARI was found in Meghalaya (4.8%) followed by Assam (2.5%),Arunachal Pradesh (2.1%) while in the states like Mizoram and Sikkim it was less than 1 percent.In most cases, rural areas exhibited a higher prevalence of ARI than urban areas.
A recent study based on NFHS-4 found, among the northeastern region, the state of Meghalaya performs worst in terms of diarrhoea and ARI.
The study found an association between diarrhoea, fever, and ARI and factors such as the age of the child and caregiver, the wealth status of the household, the quality of sanitation facilities, methods of stool disposal, and the caregiver’s educational level.
The study suggests directing efforts toward implementing programs that aim to decrease diarrhoea and ARI among children under five by addressing socioeconomic barriers that hinder caregivers’ access to wealth and education. “The window of opportunity to prevent the co-occurrence of diarrhoea, fever, and ARI in children under 5 years old is crucial during the age range of 2 to 5 years” the study says.
The study further suggests that the window of opportunity to prevent these childhood illnesses relates to the proper nutrition and follow of a timely immunisation schedule, adequate water and sanitation facilities, hygiene, well ventilated houses and no indoor pollution, proper stool disposal of children.
