ABSTRACT
Background: The Peak Expiratory Flow Rate (PEFR) is useful to screen and monitor the severity of asthma in children. Many studies have documented that age, height and weight are some of the main factors that affect the PEFR. Thus, the present study was done to find the PEFR values among the school children and to find the factors that influences the PEFR values in our geographical area.Methods: It was a cross sectional study conducted in school children belong the rural area of Kancheepuram district, Tamil Nadu, India. A total of 378 students of both the gender at the age group of 5-10 years were selected for the study. The PEFR was measured by making the participant seated comfortably. One peak flow meter was used for 25 children and mouthpiece was changed for each student.Results: The PEFR value among and male and female participants was analyzed statistically (Table 2). The mean value of male and female study population was 169.53'37.38 and 146.24'33.01 respectively. The difference in the mean values were statistically significant (p=0.001) and found to be high in male participants. The Pearson correlation r between PEFR with height is 0.463, thus showing a positive correlation with the p?0.001 which is statistically significant. The Pearson correlation r between PEFR and chest circumference is 0.335 thus indicating a positive correlation between PEFR and chest circumference.Conclusions: From the present study, the normal values of PEFR has been deduced for the healthy school children in our geographical area. Further, it was found that the height and chest circumference are influencing factors for PEFR. Further regression equation has been derived that can help us to find the approximate PEFR values with the help of height and chest circumference of the children.
ABSTRACT
Background: There are various factors that influences the age of menarche which includes genetic, nutritional status, socioeconomic status and environmental conditions. Further it has also proved that the malnutrition has delayed the age of menarche. Thus, the present study focuses on the study of relation between the nutritional status and age of menarche among the adolescent girls in a rural and urban area in Tamil Nadu, India.Methods: It is a community based cross-sectional study done in the adolescent girls of age between 11 to 15 years studying in school in the city of Chennai, India and surrounding rural areas. A total of 602 post-menarcheal adolescent girls were included in the study. The participants who were post-menarcheal were asked to recall the year and month of menarche and was noted. To assess the nutritional status, the parameters weight, height and waist circumference were determined.Results: The association between the age of menarche and BMI was studied. The study showed that there was an association with a Pearson coefficient (r) value of - 0.252 which is statistically significant (p?0.001). The association between the age of menarche and waist to height ratio was studied. The study showed that there was an association with a Pearson coefficient (r) value of - 0.261 which is statistically significant (p?0.001).Conclusions: This study has confirmed that the nutritional status has association with the age of menarche and is the contribution to the reduction in the mean of age of menarche in this geographical area.