Prevalence of stunting and thinness among Bengali children and adolescent boys of Agartala, Tripura, India

Abstract

This study was conducted to determine the prevalence of stunting and thinness using height and weight based indicators among Bengali children and adolescent school boys of Agartala, aged between 8 to 16 years. This cross-sectional study was carried out in the rural areas of Agartala through school visits. Subjects were selected using a multistage cluster sampling method. Height and weight were measured using standard procedures and body mass index (BMI) was also computed. Height-for-age below 3 percentile value of WHO reference and Indian reference was classified as stunting. BMI-for-age below 5th percentile value of WHO reference was classified as thinness. Atotal of 208 boys participated in this study. Prevalence of stunting was 20% relative to WHO reference, which reduced to almost 10% while using Indian reference data. Prevalence of thinness was 42%. Bengali boys of Agartala were showing high prevalence of stunting but lower thinness values than that of Bengali boys of Kolkata. This study reveals a moderate prevalence of stunting and high prevalence of thinness among our study boys. Poor socio-economic status seems to contributeto this moderate to high prevalence of undernutrition.