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Maya Choudhry ¹, K. Visweswara Rao ¹

Affiliations
1 National Institute of Nutrition, Indian Council of Medical Research, Hyderabad, IN

Abstract

Body weight has been used for a long time as an index of protein energy malnutrition. Attempts have been made to use arm or calf circumference and indices like weight for height (%) and weight/height' in place of body weight for evaluation of nutritional status, Some of the studies have shown that combination of height with weight for height or weight/height or circumference of arm or calf, would be better for assessment of various forms of clinical malnuturition and [growth retardation. Such studies on the children of Rajasthan and other northern parts of India have been very limited. In the present study using the data available on Rajasthani preschool children, an attempt has been made to assess whether a combination of anthropometric measurements or indices, is better for evaluation of various grades of undernutrition based on body weight.

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Maya Choudhry ¹, K. Visweswara Rao ²

Affiliations
1 Department of Food and Nutrition, College of Home Science, University of Udaipur, IN
2 National Institute of Nutrition, Indian Council of Medical Research, Jamai-Osmania P.O., Hyderabad-500007, A. P., IN

Abstract

There have been several investigations to study the extent of growth retardation. Recently emphasis has been extended towards a new concept of functional significance of various grades of growth retardation. Among the functions studied, bactericidal activity was affected in children with 30 per cent deficit of body weight, while other immunological mechanisms like cell mediated immunity were intact at this level. These later functions were altered only when the body weight deficit was about 40 per cent i. e. when the growth retardation was very severed Intestinal absorption of xylose and fat also followed the same pattern.

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Maya Choudhry ¹, K. Visweswara Rao ²

Affiliations
1 Department of Foods and Nutrition, College of Home Science, Udaipur, Rajasthan, IN
2 Department of Statistics, National Institute of Nutrition, Indian Council of Medical Research, Jamai - Osmania P. O., Hyderabad-500001, A. P., India, IN

Abstract

The majority of preschool children belonging to the poor income groups in developing countries suffer from various degrees of growth retardation due to nutritional deprivation. Malnutrition, the causative factor in the physical growth retardation, is a result of abnormal socioeconomic conditions. The result of several studies have shown that nonnutritional factors, prominent among them being socio-economic and cultural factors, age, sex and season, affect the nutritional status of children.

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