B. Rama Rao 1 , S. Appala Naidu 2 , L. Siva Kumar 3 , B. Devi Madhavi 4
NRC was started in Visakhapatnam (KGH) in December’ 2012 to nutritionally rehabilitate severely acute malnourished children. This study was conducted to assess the effectiveness of rehabilitation services provided at Nutritional Rehabilitation Center. OBJECTIVES 1) To evaluate the effectiveness of Nutritional interventional measures undertaken at Nutritional Rehabilitation Center through review of selected anthropometric measure indicators. 2) To assess the nutritional status after discharge from Nutritional Rehabilitation center. METHODS A Retrospective record based (secondary data) study conducted in the month of November 2013.Sevevnty five children were admitted in Nutritional Rehabilitation Center (NRC) of KGH, Visakhapatnam in the months of April to October 2013. The data was obtained from NRC records including anthropometric measurements at admission, discharge and follow-up. RESULTS Twenty percent of the children were less than 12 months of age and 34.7% were in the age group of 13–24 months. Forty eight percent were female and 52% were male children. Majority (93%) of the children stayed in the NRC for more than 14 days. There was significant difference in the weight of children at the time of admission and at the time of discharge (t= - 15.942, p=0.001). There was no significant difference in Mid Arm Circumference at the time of admission and at the time of discharge (t = -0.942, p=0.349). Fourteen percent were defaulted. There was significant difference in weight of children at the time of discharge and at the time of first follow-up (t=2.203, p=0.03) and third follow-up (t= -8.903, p=0.001). CONCLUSIONS NRCs are effective in improving the nutritional status of severely acute malnourished children and the follow-up also shows the children are having catch-up growth. RECOMMENDATIONS: 1) Adequate number of NRCs should be available for severely acute malnourished children in all the areas. 2) Effective counseling measures should be adopted to decrease the default rate.
