A STUDY OF PHYSICAL GROWTH AND NUTRITIONAL STATUS _ OF RURAL SCHOOL GOING CHILDREN OF ALIGARH ~ S. Khalil’ and Z. Khan? ABSTRACT An anthropometrics profile of 1240 children 888 (71.61%) boys and 352 (28.38%) girts of age 6-14 years was studied in 12 rural school of Jawan Block of Aligarh alstrict. The mean height and weight increased monotonically with age along-with high degree of positive Correlation between height and weight in both boys and girls (except for 14 years of age for girls). The overall increase in a mean height is more in boys (40.52 om) than girls (37.35 cm), but increase in mean weight was more for girls (19.76 kg) than boys (16.92 kg). It can be concluded that boys are taller than girls, but girls are heavier than boys at pre-puberty and puberty (14 years of age). The mean height and weight of present study was compared with ICMR standard, it was concluded that the mean difference between them was statistically not significant (P > 0.05).The prevalence of wasting of boys and girs were 32.76% and 28.12% respectively, ‘Stunting was observed as 79.73% of boys and 81.80% for gis. Statistical significance of wasting and stunting associated with different age group was studied by Chi-square (X*) test. It was concluded that age has play no significance role in stunting of both boys & girls and wasting for girls, but age was significantly associated with wasting of boys only. 4 Lecturer, Department of Community Medicine JNMC, AMU, Aligarh, India 2. Professor and Chairman, Department of Community Medicine JNMC, AMU, Aligarh, india oo . indexed in: Index Medicus (IMSEAR), INSDOC, NCI Current Content, Database of Alcohol & Drug Abuse, National Database in TB & Allied Diseases, indMED, Entered in WHO CD ROM for South East Asia. {S. Khalil and Z. Khan ‘A study of physical growth and nutritional status INTRODUCTION The present study was cartied out in 12 rural schoo! of Jawan block of Aligarh district. TABLE: 4 : Distribution of boys and girls according to their age. The objective was to determine the pattern [Age (in Boys Girts Total ; complete of growth and nutritional profile of children age | years) | No. | % | No. | % | No. 6-14 years. Physical examination of all the 1240|__6 | 42 | 6268 | 25 | 3731 | 67 - 7 80 | 65.21 48 34.78 138 children was carried out 888 (71.61%) were boys |—3-—yog | an-2 | a0 stat a7 and 352 (28.36%) were gists (Table 1). The mean | 9_| 08 [66 12 [st “a1.1_| 100 height and weight were statistically compared with'}—72= +i t a ICMR standards and their nutritional status was |__12__| 128 i463 studied according to Height for age (stunting) and & 2 a Weight for height (wasting) for both boys and girls. It may be observed from Table 2 and 3 | Boys Girls | a Age (in | j that both boys and giris mean height and ee : a complete | No, Mean ht No. Mean ht | weight increases monotonically with their age. | Years) (em) # SD fem) 28D The peak increase in height of boys was | between 10 and 11 years of age and in girs it was 8 and 9 years. Bul maximum increase in foe! Maat ace aOR Reiser ee mean weight has been seen between 12 and coall ices omer 13 year of age for boys and between 10 and mn 160 | 122.77+8.47 | 43 | 1229047299 11 years of age in girls. Within the age group |}————} 11} 123 | 129012879 | 45 | 129.9149.05 12 128 | 134.2149.47 | 35 | 133.684 8.65 13 90 | 140.3528.48 | 45 | 13932668 14 38 | 143.3729.21 | 11 | 138.4523.35 42 | 102.95311.20 | 25 | 101.084 9.86 86 | 109.8447.60 | 48 | 107.8547.77 ele|rjo 3 of 6 years for both boys and girls the pattern of, height was not uniform, as maximum standard deviation has been seen in this age group. Indian J. Prev. Soc. Med Vol. 35No.3k4 ' Q4 Juby - Dec, 2004S. Khalil and Z, Khan A study of physical growth and nutritional status TABLE - 3: Distribution of children as per their mean weight and + SD Similarly the pattern of weight within the age | age (in Boys Girls group of 7 for boys and 12 years for girls was not | Complete years) | No, | Meanwt | No.| Meanwt od (kg) + SD (kg) + SD boys was 40.52 cm and for girls it was 37.35 om. a tamaae tS Pease 86 19.47+8.12 | 48 17.474 2.96 108 | 19.8022.56 | 49 | 17492261 109 | 24.00+2.75 | 51 25.24 42.62 | ail the ages but girls are heavier then boys at pre- 10 160 | 23.00+3.39 | 43 | 22814299 puberty and puberty (up to 14 years). The present 11 123 [ 25414377 | 45 | 27.08+4.59 pattern of growth of boys and girls were same as 12 128 | 27.93+4.54 | 35 | 29.77+5.99 7 43 | 90 | 31.1624.60 | 45 | 32.6825.44 : i P. i. Cornero ath te ene OG aneaete 14 38 | 32.7345.80 | 11 | 35402452 | Simple correlation coefficient (r) between height and weight (Table 4) for boys and girls has been obtained and statistical significance has been tested by the application of 't' test. It has been seen that there is a high degree of positive correlation between height and weight for all the age uniform. The over all increase in mean height for However the overall increase in mean weight for boys was 16.92 kg and for girls it was 19.76 kg. It can be concluded that boys are taller than girls in elalrlo groups, except for 14 years for girls. TABLE - 4: Distribution of correlation coefficient (r) between height and weight as per age and sex The maximum correlation coefficient has | Age Boys Girls | (yrs) been noticed in the age group of 12 for both boys : aaa No. | Corr. | P| No. | Corr. and girls, For all the age groups finding suggest Coeff. | value Cooff. that there is a statistical significance in linear relationship between height and weight for both boys and girls except 14 years of age for gitls i.e. 6 | 42 | O710 | <0.05 | 25 | 0.698 7 | 90 | 0.317 | <0.05 | 48 | 0.678 8 | 108 | 0.490 | <0.05| 49 | 0.649 9 | 109 | 0.666 | <0.05 | 51 | 0.566 40 | 160 | 0.761 | <0.05 | 43 | 0.689 height and weight was also observed by E. Yalam |__| 123 | 0.760 | <0.05 | 45 | 0.570 et af 42 | 128 | 0.771 | <0.05| 35 | 0.742 : [8 13 | 90 | 0671 | <0.05| 45 | 0.503 | <0.05 | 14 | 38 | 0.643 | <0.05 | 11 | 0.082 | NS increase in height may or may not correspondence to increase in weight also. A similar pattern of significance in correlation coefficient between Indian J. Prev. Soc. Med Vol. 35 No.30L4 192. July - Dec, 2004