ABSTRACT
Background andObjectives:Adolescence which is the transitional period between childhood and adulthood is often the neglected phase as the adolescents are often regarded as relatively healthy with the focus being given for children and women. Addressing the nutritional needs of adolescents could be an important step in curbing malnutrition among them. With the rising epidemic of Non-communicable diseases, it is equally important to address both the issues of under-nutrition and over-nutrition. Hence this study was undertaken to assess the nutritional status and associated risk factors of malnutrition among the school going adolescents from 5thto 12thstandard in the rural field practice area of Hassan Institute of Medical Sciences (HIMS), Hassan.Methods:A cross-sectional study was conducted among the school going adolescents attending the government and private schools of the rural field practice area of the medical college from January 2017 to June 2018. The sample size of 830 was divided between the three areas under rural field practice area as per sample size proportional to population. BMI was measured and WHO reference charts 2007 for BMI was used to categorize the nutritional status of the adolescents.Results:The prevalence of malnutrition among the school going adolescents was found to be 44.1% of which the prevalence of thinness and severe thinness was 15.8% and 21.3% respectively and that of overweight and obesity was 5.8% and 1.2% respectively. On logistic regression, male gender, government school, lower socio-economic status, deworming status and open-air defecation were identified as significant risk factors for undernutrition and female gender, private school, upper socio-economic status, low levels of physical activity, excess television watching, consuming junk foods, breakfast skipping, inadequate sleeping hours were identified as significant risk factors for overnutrition. Conclusion:The prevalence of malnutrition among the school going adolescentswas found to be 44.1% in our study. Gender, type of school in which they study, socio-economic status and life style behaviours were found to be significant risk factors for malnutrition. There is a need for health education programmes, regular monitoringand effective policies to promote healthy eating and lifestyle changes among adolescents to curb the burden of malnutrition
ABSTRACT
An investigation was carried out on correlation and path analysis for 12 characters on 60 F1s obtained by crossing 20 inbred lines with three testers using line × tester mating design in maize. Sixty hybrids along with 23 parents and three standard checks were evaluated for twelve characters during rabi, 2012-13. The phenotypic character association among the yield components revealed positive association of grain yield per plant with days to maturity, plant height, ear height, ear length, ear girth, number of kernel rows per plant, number of kernels per row, 100- kernel weight and shelling percentage. Grain yield per plant negatively correlated with days to 50 per cent tasseling and days to 50 per cent silking. The path coefficient analysis at phenotypic level revealed that character, 100-kernel weight (0.2863) exhibites the largest direct effect on grain yield per plant followed by number of kernels per row (0.2509) and ear girth (0.2202. Further, days to 50 per cent tasseling, days to 50 per cent silking and days to maturity recorded negative direct effect on grain yield.