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Indian Pediatr 2011;48: 4 88-489 |
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Assessment of Nutritional Status of Rural
Tribal Children in Tripura |
SK Sil, S Roy Sarkar, S Saha and S Roy,
Department of Human Physiology, Tripura University,
Tripura, India.
Email:
[email protected]
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This cross-sectional study evaluated the nutritional status of 608 rural
tribal children (age 6 to 15 years) from Jampuijala block of West
Tripura district, India. Prevalence of stunting, thinness and overweight
were 23.7%, 33.4% and 0.8%, respectively. The prevalence of stunting and
thinness was found to be higher in boys than in girls.
Key words: Growth, Tribal, Undernutrition.
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Undernutrition is an important public health issue, especially among the
tribal populations in India [1]. Anthropometry is a widely accepted tool
for assessing the nutritional status in children and adolescents [2,3].
Very few studies on nutritional status of children have been reported from
the tribal populations of northeast India [3-5]. Tripura, the second
smallest state of northeast India, consists of nineteen classified tribal
populations. The Tripuri is the numerically major tribal population
of Tripura, and physically they exhibit mongoloid features [6]. In the
present study, nutritional status of 6-15 years old children in rural
Tripura was assessed.
The subjects for the present cross-sectional study were
selected from the schools of Jampuijala block of West Tripura
district. The cluster random sampling method was followed for selecting
the subjects. Schools were randomly selected, and all the students of
eligible age were included in the study. A total of 608 Tripuri school
children (306 boys and 302 girls) aged 6 to 15 years were studied. All
children were from low socio-economic status. Age of each subject was
verified from school records. Data were collected after obtaining the
necessary approval from the school authorities and written consent was
obtained from each subject. The protocol and procedure employed was in
accordance with the Helsinki Declaration of 1964, as revised in 2004 [6].
Height and weight of each child were measured using standard techniques
[7] and body mass index (BMI) was calculated The indices of under
nutrition such as stunting, thinness and overweight were calculated
according to the classification of World Health Organization [2], using
the 2007 WHO growth reference data for 5-19 years [8].
The peak height velocity was between 12-13 years for
boys, and between 9-10 years for girls. Prevalence of stunting, thinness
and overweight of rural Tripuri children is represented in Table
I. The overall (sex and age combined) prevalence of stunting, thinness
and overweight were 23.7%, 33.4%, and 0.8%, respectively. The prevalence
of stunting and thinness were higher in boys than that in girls. With the
advancement of age (10 years onwards), decreasing trend of thinness was
observed among girls. The results of this study are contrary to the common
belief that Indian girls are at a nutritional disadvantage compared to
boys, and the results also indicate that the nutritional status of rural
Tripuri tribal children is better than that of other tribal
children of northeast India as reported in earlier studies [3-5].
TABLE I
Nutritional Status of Rural Tripuri Children of Jampuijala, Tripura
Age (years) |
Stunting
(Height <3rd percentile) |
Thinness
(BMI <5th percentile) |
Overweight
(BMI ≥85th percentile) |
|
Boys n (%) |
Girls n (%) |
Boys n (%) |
Girls n (%) |
Boys n (%) |
Girls n (%) |
6 |
10 (38.5)* |
3 (13.0) |
8 (30.8) |
10 (43.5) |
0 |
0 |
7 |
6 (27.3) |
6 (15.8) |
10 (45.4) |
22 (57.9) |
0 |
0 |
8 |
10 (27.3) |
4 (13.8) |
16 (44.4) |
9 (31.0) |
0 |
0 |
9 |
3 (13.0) |
6 (25.0) |
8 (34.8) |
8 (33.3) |
0 |
0 |
10 |
8 (25.0) |
0 |
16 (50.0) |
5 (25.0) |
0 |
1 (5.0) |
11 |
8 (28.6) |
3 (10.34) |
12 (42.9) |
9 (31.0) |
1 (3.6) |
0 |
12 |
11 (33.3) |
8 (20.0) |
14 (42.4) |
10 (25.0) |
0 |
1 (2.5) |
13 |
13 (36.1) |
9 (36.0) |
15 (41.76) |
4 (16.0) |
0 |
1 (4.0) |
14 |
15 (41.7) |
07 (21.9) |
14 (38.9) |
4 (12.5) |
0 |
1 (3.13) |
15 |
4 (11.8) |
10 (23.8) |
4 (11.8) |
5 (12.) |
0 |
0 |
All (n=608) |
88 (28.8) |
56 (18.5) |
117 (38.2) |
86 (28.5) |
1 (0.3) |
4 (1.3) |
Acknowledgments: We acknowledge all the school
authorities for providing permission to carry out this work. We thank Dr
Parasmani Dasgupta, Associate Professor, Indian Statistical Institute,
Kolkata for his guidance and valuable suggestions during the work.
Competing interests: None stated.
Funding: Tripura University.
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Assessed November 10, 2010.
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