Long-Term Change in Indian Health

Abstract

I There is a paucity of comprehensive and systematic evidence of long-term changes in Indian health. Estimates of long-term change in death rates for the entire population do exist, but not for specific socio-economic groups within the popu- lation.r Neither is there adequate evidence on the incidence of disease and on nutritional intake for these various socio-economic groups. There do exist, how- ever, anthropometric data on adult height and weight, by caste, which can be utilised to study long-term changes in Indian health. It is well recognised by human biologists that frnal adult height is a good measure of the health of the child during the growing period until the attainmenr of final adult height. It is a particularly sensitive measure of the growing period from in utero to the first two years of life; after two years of age, environmental insults-due to nutritional intake or the incidence of disease-mostly change the tempo of growth, so delaying the attainment of final adult height. In India, final adult male height is delayed, in fact, to age 24 due to the severe epidemiological environment and the poor nutritional intake of much of the population. Whereas unal adult height is a measure of past health, weight is more a measure of current health status. To standardise weight for the different heights of individuals, human biologists use the 'body mass index' (BMI)-an individual's weight (measured in kilograms) divided by the squâre of his/her height (measured in metres)-as a particularly sensitive indicator of health status.