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Nutritional status and morbidity profile of school-going adolescents in a district of West Bengal
Abantika Bhattacharya1, Mausumi Basu2, Supantha Chatterjee3, Raghu Nath Misra2, Gagori Chowdhury4
1 Department of Community Medicine, Midnapore Medical College, Paschim Medinipur, India
2 Department of Community Medicine, Institute of Post-Graduate Medical Education and Research (IPGMER), Kolkata, West Bengal, India
3 Department of Medical Education, Health and Family Welfare, Government of West Bengal, Swasthya Bhavan, Kolkata, West Bengal, India
4 Department of Bio-Informatics and Bio-Physics, University of Calcutta, Kolkata, West Bengal, India
Correspondence Address:
Mausumi Basu
Department of Community Medicine, Institute of Post-Graduate Medical Education and Research (IPGMER), Kolkata, West Bengal
India
 Source of Support: We declare that no funding, direct or indirect, for
our study was received, Conflict of Interest: There are no potential,
perceived, or real competing and/or confl icts of interest among authors
regarding the article.
our study was received  | Check |
DOI: 10.4103/0975-9727.146414
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Background: In India, adolescent age group (10-19 years) constitutes 21.4% of the total population. The health and nutritional status of the adolescents is an index of its future manpower. It is well recognized worldwide that anthropometric measurements are indispensable in diagnosing undernutrition. Objective: To assess the nutritional status and morbidity pattern among school-going adolescents. Materials and Methods: A descriptive cross-sectional study was carried out in three randomly selected co-educational schools of Burdwan District of West Bengal in May 2013 among 424 adolescents in the age group of 10-19 years from class V to class XI (except class X), using a predesigned pretested proforma. Results: The prevalence of underweight and stunting were 53.31% and 47.41%, respectively, which was significantly higher in early adolescence than in late adolescence and more in boys than in girls. About 55.18% had pallor, 40.33% had dental caries, 33.49% were suffering from refractive errors, 23.11% had history of worm infestation, 38.90% had skin problems, and 68.61% adolescents had ENT problems. Conclusion: The health and nutritional status among the school-going adolescents was found to be poor. |
