Nutritional status among boys and girls of a central Indian Town (Sagar)

Abstract

The prevalence of undernutrition is a significant area of concern in many developing countries, where it is a major public health problem. The aim of the study was to assess the prevalence of undernutrition among school-going boys and girls of central Indian city Sagar, MP. A total of 612 individuals (312 girls and 300 boys) aged 5-18 years were examined and compared to the NCHS reference data. The nutritional status was assessed using following anthropometric indicators: body height and weight, body mass index (BMI) and composite index of anthropometric failure (CIAF). It was found that girls were heavier (1 kg) and taller (2-5 cm) than boys up to 15 and 13 years of age, respectively. After that, boys became taller with 1 to 13 cm. The mean BMI of boys was higher to girls up to 10 year of age after that the trend was reversed.Comparison of the present findings with NCHS reference data revealed that Indian girls and boys were lagging behind. The difference in body weight between the reference data and the present sample was around 5 to 6 kg. The pattern of difference in body height revealed small amount during early childhood (6.6.cm and 9.6 cm in girls and boys 5 years of age). This difference more than doubled at the age of 14 years in girls 16.7 cm and in boys 17.5 cm (p<0.01). Similar pattern was found for BMI with 6.5 kg/m 2 and 6.3 kg/ m 2 in 14 years old girls and 16 years old boys (p<0.01). Z-score values of weight-for-age, height-for-age and BMI-for-age revealed that that boys were more likely to be stunted than girls whereas girls were more likely to be underweight and undernourished than boys. In terms of CIAF 10.6% girls and 10% boys were undernourished. The results of the present study indicate that there is great need for implementation of health programmes to eliminate gender inequalities and improve children's health.

Extended composite index of anthropometric failure in Argentinean preschool and school children

“…Mondal and Sen (50) assessed underweight, stunting, low BMI for age and its combinations in Indian schoolchildren between 5 and 12 years old, based on references from the patterns of the National Center of Health Statistics (51) . Following the same methodology, Thakur and Gautam (52) also analysed Indian school children between 5 and 18 years of age. The results obtained showed a great variability because of religious factors, ethnicity, geoclimatology and urban development.…”

Gender equality, food security and the sustainable development goals

“…In the 1970s and 1980s, these inequalities were observed even in direct measures of caloric intakes in poor households, apart from the quality of food consumed by both the poor and the rich, and in anthropometric and malnourishment indices (Agarwal 1989(Agarwal , 2014. Today the evidence on caloric intakes is more mixed, but other gender disadvantages persist, as observed in South Asia in terms of undernourished and underweight children (Thakur and Gautam 2015;Nuruddin and Hadden 2015). Moreover, globally, an estimated 613 million women are anaemic, especially but not only when pregnant and lactating (Gobal Nutrution Report 2017).…”

Levels of childhood nutritional status among the Muslims of char areas in Barpeta district, Assam

“…A similar result has also been found by Thakur and Gautam. 20 Z-score values of weight-for-age, height-forage and BMI-for-age revealed in their study among the school-going boys and girls of central Indian city Sagar, Madhya Pradesh that boys were more likely to be stunted than girls whereas girls were more likely to be underweight and undernourished than boys. Male children were found to be more prone to undernutrition than females as found in a study by Kabubo-Mariara et al, which indicated that boys are more likely than girls to suffer from chronic and acute undernutrition as well as underweight.…”

“…20 21 89±3.42 90.14±5.67 0.7747 12.67±1.93 12.5±1.5 0.3158 13.55±2.76 13.89±1.22 0.5145 4+ 28 20 98.04±4.45 98.3±3.06 0.2256 13.2±2.59 12.75±2.22 0.6289 13.64±1.79 13.93±0.13 0.7210 5+ 26 25 101.06±5.48 102.91±3.1 1.4758 15±3.20 14.83±3.4 0.1839 13.66±2.29 14.44±0.85 1.5999 6+ 30 32 104.5±4.87 105.5±4.3 0.8583 16.23±3.27 15.0±2.76 1.6041 13.67±0.96 14.17±1.38 1.6456 7+ 35 28 108.79±8.17 109.3±2.83 0.3151 18.6±3.31 17.5±2.12 1.5248 13.80±0.84 14.50±1.80 2.0423 8+ 40 29 112.36±5.75 113.25±4.33 0.7012 20.7±3.06 20.25±4.11 0.5217 13.92±1.36 14.85±2.30 2.1031 9+ 36 31 113.9±6.34 116.28±7.30 1.4285 22.64±2.75 21.58±2.23 1.7144 14.16±1.05 14.96±1.38 2.6906 92±4.02 119.95±8.22 1.9298 23.17±3.66 25.27±3.09 2.4755 52±1.64 15.01±1.35 1.3013…”