Prevalence of Stunting in Children and Adolescents from Bankura District of West Bengal, India

Abstract

The study was carried out in 2008 in some selected schools at Kashipur in Purulia district of West Bengal. The sampling was not probabilistic. The study has been approved by the institutional committee before the commencement of work as part of a master’s thesis. The parents of the participants gave permission to record anthropometric data from the minors who gave verbal assent. The participants were 6 to 9-year-old children (76 boys, 64 girls) and 10 to 17-year-old adolescents (289 boys, 175 girls). Age of the participants has been recorded from the birth certificate issued by the local government authority and decimal age was estimated from the date of survey. Height was measured to the nearest tenth of a centimeter using a standard stadia meter (Seca, Germany), following standard procedure [4]. Height-for-age Z-scores (HAZ) were calculated using the WHO Anthro and WHO Anthro Plus software and stunting was defined as reported earlier [1]. Data analysis was done using Microsoft ® Excel. Descriptive statistics of age and height (mean values and standard deviation) were calculated and sex difference of characteristics was estimated using Student’s t-test. Prevalence of stunting has been estimated. Statistical significance was set a priori at p < 0.05. Abstract Under nutrition in children is an important public health issue in India, particularly from the rural areas. The objective of the present study was to evaluate height and prevalence of stunting among school-going children and adolescents. A cross-sectional study was undertaken among school-going children and adolescents from Purulia district in West Bengal, India. The participants were 6 to 9-year-old children (76 boys, 64 girls) and 10 to 17-year-old adolescents (289 boys, 175 girls). Girl children were taller (118.44 cm) than boys (115.72 cm). However, adolescent boys showed higher mean value of height (141.15 cm) than that recorded among girl peers (136.94 cm) with significant sex difference. High prevalence of stunting has been recorded among children (boys 46.10%, girls 43.8%) and adolescents (boys 77.2%, girls 72.0%). The objective of present study was to evaluate height and prevalence of stunting among school-going and adolescents Purulia