title: Morbidity Among Tribal Under-Five Children of Tea Garden Areas in a Block of Darjeeling District, West Bengal: A Cross-Sectional Study.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  In the developing world, more than half of infant and childhood mortality is related to childhood diseases particularly- acute respiratory infections (ARI) and diarrhoea. The situation is worse among underprivileged population such as tribals and people living in tea garden areas.
  
  
  OBJECTIVE
  To identify the morbidity pattern and the associated factors among tribal, under five, children living in tea garden areas of Darjeeling district.
  
  
  METHODS
  A cross-sectional study was conducted in three randomly chosen tea garden areas of a block in Darjeeling District, West Bengal, India from September 2013-February 2014. The collected data was analysed using SPSS software and binary logistic regression was applied to test association between morbidity and other epidemiological correlates.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Morbidity was noted among 74 out of 192 children studied. Major causes of morbidity were- diarrhoea (26%), acute respiratory infections (24.5%) and fever (16.7%). Proportion of underweight children according to their age was 64.4%. Morbidity status was found statistically significant with some factors, like- religion, socio-economic status, immunization status and number of siblings.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  There is high prevalence of diarrhoea and ARI associated morbidity in this part of the country.
authors.affiliation: Post Graduate Trainee, Department of Community Medicine, North Bengal Medical College , Sushrutanagar, Darjeeling, West Bengal, India .
authors.forename: Kaushik
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Ishore
authors.affiliation: Assistant Professor, Department of Community Medicine, North Bengal Medical College , Sushrutanagar, Darjeeling, West Bengal, India .
authors.forename: Sharmistha
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Bhattacherjee
authors.affiliation: Professor & Head, Department of Community Medicine, North Bengal Medical College , Sushrutanagar, Darjeeling, West Bengal, India .
authors.forename: Dilip Kumar
authors.initials: DK
authors.lastname: Das
keywords: Acute respiratory infections; Diarrhea; Fever; IMNCI