Incian Joumal of Community Medicine Vol. XXV, No.4, Oct-Dec.. 2000, HEALTH STATUS OF SCHOOL CHILDREN IN LUDHIANA CITY P. Panda, A.L. Benjamin, Shavinder Singh, P. Zachariah Depit. of Social & Preventive Medicine, Christian Medical College, Ludhiana-141008, Punjab Abstract: Research question: What is the health and nutritional status of schoo! children in Ludhiana’? Objectives" To assess the health and nutntional status of school childeen in the age grOUp of $-16 years and to find out their morbidity ty desig: Descriptive study. Seting» A secondary school of Ludhiana ci Paricipanc 776 staents of oth sexes 63 boys and 314 gs Stidy variables: Height, weight, medical history and general physical examination Sttiaueal analysis: Proportions ists ii al ae 4p he yar la ayer mean wei fx an comparion a mean eight compe ext seit forage as er CMR standards. The expected height forage as pet ICMR standards, was lo les in Doth boys and ils fal ages xcept 1S and [6 year old. The prevalence of wasting and stunting in hese children was high (52.2% wasted and 26.3% stunted), with toys and iil suffering almost equally. The 11-15 yeas old were affected most-724% hilren were found to be suering fom some Sickness the time of examination. 26% had snaca, with gis suffering more (30.8%) than the boys (2 9%) Conclusions: The sdy reveals the poor national and health tats of shoo! elden under study. denying this group or targeted Services simed a improvement of tir health and tetional sas Key Words: School health, nutritional status, anaemia, Introduction: Material and Methods: All students, in the age group 5-16 years, of a secondary school in Ludhiane were examined by a health team consisting of medical students (final years). interns and faculty of the department of SPM, Christian Medical ‘Wheres there are concerted effort provide cae to the under six year old children through various national smatemal and child health programmes (eg. ICDS, RCH programmes), the 5-16 yearsage groupremainsanepeced Shy in Tot The 1991 census shows that 25% ofthe population of India comprises of children aged 5-14 years', School Observations: children constitute large pol ofchilren of this age group, Table: Distribution ofthe children by age & se ‘The beginning of schoo! health services in India dates back ‘Age Boys Girls Total to 1909 when, for the first time medical examination of (in years) __No(%) __No.%) schoo! children was carried out in Baroda city’. Since then, 4, 39639) 22061) various types of government sponsored school health o 48593) 33407) 31 programmes have been launched from time to time, but o 530779) 15(22:1) 68 progress and achievements are very slow and incomplete + 51548) 42(45.2) 93 and very often limited to the urban and few favoured a 5060.2) 33(39.8) 83 schools. In addition, schoo! health services are iregular and 9+ 451536) 39(46.4) 8a intermittent, without follow-up or accountability. The 5-16 10 24615) 1508.5) 2 years old children are on the threshold of adulthood. If they te 3265.3) 17(34.7) o 1+ 2365.7) 12(34.3) 35 are to reach adulthood in a healthy state then iis necessary ae 136565) 10(83.5) B to provide targeted and concerted services to improve their le 2600) 18(400) s health status. Ise" 404533) 35(46.7) 15 ‘The present study was carried out to find out the 16+ 17425) __ 24575) 40 health status of school children in Ludhiane city Toul 4626595) 314(405)_—776 150Indian Journal of Community Medicine Vol, XXV, No.4, Oct-Dec., 2000, A total of 776 students of both sexes (462 boys and conjunctivavtongue, The mean weight and height of the 314 girls) in the age groups of $ years to 16 years, were children according to age and sex were compared with the examined median weight for age and height for age as per ICMR Physical examination of all children was carried out, 8 * ch oes and teirheight (tothe nearest 0.5 cms) and weight (in kgs... “andards'. Nutritional status of the studied chikiren was to the nearest 10 gms) were recorded. Anaemia was assessed through weight for age (wasting) and height for diagnosed from clinical signs such as pallor of the age (stunting) according to waterlow classification. ‘Table I: Distribution of children as per their mean height (in em, Age Boys Gis ANOVA lin years) valve No, ‘Mean height sD No Mean height sD * 9.42 538 2 99.63 432 Old s 107.87 635 8 05.57 337 ‘0.00 os n232 466 5 11320 706 ol Tas Sal a 11797 65 O72 a 123.76 379 3 123.72 539) 0.40 o+ 12760, 55a » 12881 874, 032 10s 139.04 inn is Tada, 589 ok ne Gad 613 1 139.0 0.46 031 12+ 192.39 770 2 14416 5.28 027 Be 1584 277 10 147.60 02, os 1 15503 16.76 Ik 152.00 4a 021 13+ 0 163.10 729 38 152.54 493 0.00 Tor 7 16387 610 2 15290 at 0.00 ‘SD = Standard deviation (On an average the boys were found to be significantly boys, but these differences were statistically not significant taller than the girls at ages 5.15 and 16 (ANOVA p<0.05). (ANOVA p>0.05). At4.6.7.9.11,12 and 13 years the girls were taller than the ble Il: Distribution of children as per their mean weight (in k Age Boss Gus ANOVA (in years) p value No. Mean weight SD No. Mean weight SD. * 9 198 196 2 Tsar a 025 Ss as 17.10 281 a 16.28 298 0.008 oo 3 187 262 5 1833 333 0.003, Si wR 26 2 2072 376 0.20 8 50 2400 423 3 2578 347 093 oe 8 26.62 437 9 2693 628 064 10+ 2 ua43 9130 is 28:86 406 013 ie 2 3s 763 ita 3368 921 O64 1 3 aun? 6.06 2 3791 Tas o4 ihe i 3415 587 10 4150 793 0.002 re 2 294 10.39 is 4838 809 007 Ise 40 50.40 803, 3 46.38 830 0.001 los i7 54.30 950 2 4595 800 0.008 Standard deviation, Hain stats of school eniléron 181 Panda P. et(On an average the girls weighed significantly more than the boys at ages 6,13 and 14 (ANOVA p<0.05). Atages 7.9.11 and 12 also the girls weighed more than the boys, but these differences were statistically not significant (ANOVA 1p>0.05), The boys were significantly heavier than the girls Indian Journal of Community Medicine Vol. XXV, No, Oct -D8e., 2000 at ages 5,15 and 16 (ANOVA p<0.05). At ages 4,8 and 10 also the boys weighed more than the girls, but the differences were statistically not significant (ANOVA 20.05). ‘Table IV: Mean weight of girls as percentage of mean weight of boys of the same age. ‘Age resent study NCHS" Kerala? (in years) “ 986 989) ona se 983 944 98.6 6+ 100 949 987 * 102.9 on 1019 a+ 99.1 996 946 + 101. 1027 98.7 Woe 89.2 1042 1010 Me 1030 104.5 100.5 1 109.8 103.5 102.4 + 1217 1010 1053 ae 128 968 1089 15+ 24 924 106.4 16+ 865 Nat Nat Not available. ‘Table V: Mean deficit from ICMR standards for weight and height of children. Age ‘Mean deficit from ICMR standards (in years) Weight (Kg) Height (em) Boys Girls Boys Girls rvs 20 19 22 17 St 28 24 09 16 6+ 14 24 24 25 1+ 26 22 22 28 8 27 15 27 13 9% 39 28 47 31 10+ 40 46 os MW i+ 52 29 60 39 12+ 61 aq 19 81 13+ 34 29 72 102 14+ 31 “16 03 38 15+ 23 19 “18 2 16+ 23 16 98 54 Health status of school children 152 Panda Petal