Prevalence of thinness using new international cut-off points among Santal tribal children and adolescents of Purulia District, West Bengal, India
Abstract
Objectives: A community based cross-sectional study was undertaken to determine the prevalence of undernutrition using body mass index (BMI) among 7-18 year old Santal children and adolescents of Purulia District, West Bengal, India.
Methods: A total of 421 (217 boys) children from ten villages was measured. Age and sex specific new international BMI (kg/m2) based cut off values were used to evaluate nutritional status.
Results: Although girls had greater mean weight and BMI than boys, these sex differences were not statistically significant. Moreover, boys and girls had almost similar mean heights. Although more girls (44.6%) than boys (38.3%) were undernourished, this sex difference was also not significant. The overall prevalence of thinness (41.3%) was very high among the studied Santal children and adolescents.
Conclusion: The children and adolescents of both sexes were observed to be under serious and critical nutritional stress.
(Key words: Thinness; BMI; boys; girls; Santal; undernutrition)
Sri Lanka Journal of Child Health, 2011; 40(3): 105-110
DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.4038/sljch.v40i3.3507 (This DOI was corrected on 4/11/2011 so please use this version to refer to this article)
© 2011 Subal Das, Kaushik Bose, published by Sri Lanka College of Paediatricians
This work is licensed under the Creative Commons License.