Indian Pediatrics - Editorial

Correspondence

Indian Pediatrics 2008; 45:515-516

Nutritional Status of Rural Adolescent School Children in Paschim Medinipur, West Bengal

There is little information on the nutritional status of adolescent school children from rural West Bengal. The present study was undertaken to ascertain the level of undernutrition among 11-18 year old rural school children in Paschim Medinipur district, West Bengal.

This cross-sectional study was conducted in a higher secondary school, situated in a rural area within the Paschim Medinipur Sadar north sub-division about 29 Km from Midnapore town. Verification of age was done from the school records, as well from the answers to specific questions in the pre-tested questionnaire which was completed by every subject. A total of 1094 students, out of 665 (60.8%) boys and 429 (39.2%) girls aged 11-18 years were randomly selected.

Height and weight measurements were made following the standard techniques(1) and body mass index (BMI) was computed following inter-nationally accepted standard equation. Nutritional status was evaluated using the World Health Organization(2) recommended age and sex specific cut-off points of BMI based on the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) percentile values(3). Undernutrition (thinness) was defined as BMI <5th percentile as recommended by WHO(2).

TABLE I

Nutritional Status of Rural Adolescents in West Bengal

Age	Sample size		BMI (kg/m²)		Undernutrition (%)
(year)	Boys	Girls	Boys	Girls	Boys	Girls
11	96	66	15.2 (2.6)	15.1 (1.9)	48.9	42.4
12	117	59	15.6 (1.9)	16.2 (2.3)	52.1	40.7
13	121	82	16.0 (2.0)	16.8 (2.9)*	47.1	28.1*
14	100	84	16.7 (2.2)	17.3 (2.3)	45.0	20.2*
15	70	40	17.6 (2.1)	18.2 (2.2)	35.7	15.0*
16	56	43	17.8 (1.8)	18.5 (2.4)	35.7	13.9*
17	47	24	18.7 (2.1)	18.9 (2.2)	23.4	8.3
18	58	31	19.0 (1.8)	19.5 (2.5)	20.7	6.5
Total	665	429	16.7 (2.4)	17.3 (2.7)*	41.8	25.2*

Standard deviations are presented in parentheses. *Sex difference (p < 0.05).

The distribution of sample, mean (SD) of BMI and prevalence of undernutrition are presented in Table I. There was a consistent increasing trend in mean BMI with age among both sexes. The overall prevalence of undernutrition was 35.3%. It was observed that undernutrition was more common among early adolescents (11-14 years) than late adolescents (15-18 years). There was a consistent decreasing trend in the rate of undernutrition from 11 years (48.9%) to 18 years (20.7%) among boys and from 11 years (42.4%) to 18 years (6.5 %) among girls. The prevalence of undernutrition was higher in boys (41.8%) as compared to girls (25.2%). This study provides evidence of high prevalence of adolescent undernutrition in this area. However, these rates were lower than those reported from other parts of India(4, 5).

Kaushik Bose,
Samiran Bisai,
Department of Anthropology,
Vidyasagar University,
Midnapore 721 102, West Bengal, India.
E-mail: [email protected]

Funding: UGC.

Competing interests: None stated.

References

1. Lohman TG, Roche AF, Martorell R. Anthropometric Standardization Reference Manual. Chicago: Human Kinetics Books, 1988.

2. World Health Organization. Physical Status: The Use and Interpretation of Anthropometry. Technical Report Series No. 854. Geneva: World Health Organization; 1995.

3. World Health Organization. Measuring change in nutritional status. Geneva: World Health Organization; 1983.

4. Rao KM, Laxmaiah A, Venkaiah K, Brahmam GN. Diet and nutritional status of adolescent tribal population in nine states of India. Asia Pac J Clin Nutr 2006; 15: 64-71.

5. Venkaiah K, Damayanti K, Nayak, MU, Vijayaraghavan K. Diet and nutritional status of rural adolescents in India. Eur J Clin Nutr 2002; 56: 1119-1125.