Nutritional Status Among Urban School Children and Adolescents from North India: A Comparative Study between Government and Private Schools in Asian Indians

Abstract

Background: Under nutrition is a major health problem among children and adolescents in India than any other large country. The study was conducted to find out the nutritional status of underweight, overweight and obesity in different schools in Asian Indians from North India. Methods: This school-based cross-sectional study conducted in 41 schools from class 1 th to 12 th (4-18 years). Total 18,806 children and adolescents [11,390 (60.57%) boys and 7,416 (39.43%)] were recruited. The anthropometric measurements of body mass index (BMI), waist circumference (WC) and hip circumference (HC) were recorded. Waist-hip ratio (WHR) and waist height ratio (WHtR) have been calculated. Results: The overall prevalence of underweight, overweight and obesity was 62.75%, 7.49% and 2.81% respectively. Prevalence of underweight was significantly increased in government school (71.35%), and overweight (8.85%) and obesity (3.13%) was increased in private school (p<0.05). Mean values of BMI (p=0.0001), WC (p=0.00001), HC (p=0.0001), WHR (p=0.0001) and WhtR (p=0.0001) was significantly higher in children and adolescents from private schools. Further, mean values of age (p<0.0001), BMI (p<0.0001), WC (p<0.0001), HC (p<0.0001), WHR (p<0.0001) and WHtR (p<0.0001) was significantly increased in obese students as compared to others. In both genders, BMI had significant correlation with anthropometric measurements (p<0.0001). In addition, boys and girls were underweight in those aged 4-10 years. Conclusion: We concluded that under nutrition was significantly higher in government schools and, overweight and obesity was more prevalent in private schools in Asian Indian children and adolescents from North India. Funding Statement: This study was fully supported by a grant from the Department of Biotechnology, Ministry of Science and Technology, Government of India. Declaration of Interests: The authors declare no conflict of interest. Ethics Approval Statement: The study was approved by the institutional ethics committee from All India Institute of Medical Sciences, Ansari Nagar, New Delhi India.