Very high prevalence of thinness using new international body mass index cut off points among 5-10 year old school children of nandigram, west Bengal, India

<ul><li><strong>BACKGROUND</strong>: To assess the prevalence of thinness among 5-10 year old school children of Nandigram, Purba Medinipur District of West Bengal, India.</li><li><strong>METHODS&lt...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Raja Chakraborty, Kaushik Bose
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Wolters Kluwer Medknow Publications 2009-04-01
Series:Journal of Research in Medical Sciences
Subjects:
Online Access:http://journals.mui.ac.ir/jrms/article/view/2278
Description
Summary:<ul><li><strong>BACKGROUND</strong>: To assess the prevalence of thinness among 5-10 year old school children of Nandigram, Purba Medinipur District of West Bengal, India.</li><li><strong>METHODS</strong>: A total of 596 students (323 boys and 288 girls) aged 5-10 years were included in this cross-sectional study. Height and weight were measured and the body mass index (BMI) was computed. The new  nternational BMI-based classification cut-off points proposed by Cole et al were utilized to identify thinness.</li><li><strong>RESULTS</strong>: The overall (age-combined) mean BMI among boys and girls were 13.9 kg/m2 (SD = 1.4) and 13.8 kg/m2 (SD = 1.2), respectively. In general, mean BMI increased with age in both sexes. There was no  ignificant sex difference in mean BMI. The overall (age-combined) prevalence of thinness was 62.9% and 61.6% in boys and girls,  espectively.</li><li><strong>CONCLUSIONS</strong>: The present study clearly indicated that the nutritional situation of these children was unsatisfactory.</li><li><strong>KEYWORDS</strong>: Body mass index, undernutrition, thinness, IOTF cut off points, nandigram, West Bengal.</li></ul>
ISSN:1735-1995
1735-7136