A socio-demographic profile, growth, nutritional and hygiene status of children of primary and secondary boarding schools of Gandhinagar district: a cross sectional study.

Background: A school is a key location for educating children about health, hygiene and nutrition, and for putting in place interventions to promote the health of children. Objectives: of current study were 1) To study the socio demographic profile of children of boarding schools. 2) To study the growth, nutritional and hygiene status of children of boarding schools. Methods: The study was a cross sectional study. After taking the permission of principal of resident schools and consent of the parents of children, 867 children from 8 boarding schools were interviewed during February-March 2011. A self-administered questionnaire was used for data collection. Results: Age of the study children (total 867) ranged from 5-19 years. (Mean age = 13.80 ± 1.96 years). Out of 867, 434 (49.9%) were boys and 433 (50.1%) were girls. 32.6% belonged to socio economic class IV. There were only 122 (14.1%) children who had been in boarding school since 4 and more than 4 years. Good personal hygiene was observed in only 75 (8.7%) children followed by fair personal hygiene in 292 (33.7%) children and poor personal hygiene in 500 (57.7%) children. 220 (50.8%) female children had fair personal hygiene and 343 (79.0%) male children had poor personal hygiene and this difference was statistically significant. Prevalence of malnutrition in this study was 7.2% (Females = 4.2%; Males = 10.1%; P <0.001).The bulk of the malnutrition cases were constituted by the grade-I P.E.M. cases (66.1%) followed by grade-II P.E.M. cases (25.8%) and there were 5 (8.1%) cases of grade-III malnutrition only in female children. Conclusion: Poor personal hygiene, poor nutritional status among these children needs great attention and health education.

Tobacco and areca nut use among children of primary and secondary boarding schools of Gandhinagar district: a cross sectional study.

Tobacco and Areca nut use among school children is becoming a serious problem in developing countries. Objectives of current study were to determine the prevalence and pattern of smokeless tobacco and areca nut use among residential school children and to know the reason behind sending them in boarding school. Methods: The study was a cross sectional study. After taking the permission of principal of resident schools and consent of the parents of children, 867 children from 8 boarding schools were interviewed during February-March 2011. A self-administered questionnaire was used for data collection. Results: Age of the study children (total 867) ranged from 5-19 years. (Mean age = 13.80 ± 1.96 years). Out of 867, 434 (49.9%) were boys and 433 (50.1%) were girls. Out of 867 children 311 (35.9%) children [Females: 99 (22.8%); Males: 212 (48.8%)] had addiction. Prevalence of any type of addiction in girls and boys was 22.8% and 48.8% respectively. Tobacco prevalence was 18.6% and areca nut prevalence was 17.3%. Out of 212 male children who had addiction majority of children {149 (70.3%)} consume tobacco in the form of gutkha and out of 149, 127 (85.2%) male children consume tobacco since 1 to 3 years and 22 (14.8%) children since 4 to 9 years. Among the tobacco users, the mean age at the start of any tobacco use was 12.8 years with an SD of 1.1 years. Out of 99 female children who had addiction majority of children {87 (87.9%)} consume areca nut and out of 87, 74 (85.1%) female children consume areca nut since 1 to 3 years and 13 (14.9%) children since 4 to 9 years. The mean age group of children who consume tobacco and areca nut was 14.34 ± 1.83 years and 14.03 ± 1.41 years. 63.6% children were in residential school were due to economical reason. Conclusion: High prevalence of tobacco and betel nut in children indicate that more emphasis should be given to increase their awareness regarding hazards of these substances through health education campaign with active involvement of teachers and parents.

A Cross Sectional study to determine prevalence of overweight and obesity and its association with Hypertension and Diabetes in Kungher ( RHTC Area) population of GMERS Medical College-Dharpur Patan.

Obesity is a well-known risk factor of hypertension and diabetes. This study was aimed to investigate the prevalence of overweight and obesity in Kungher (Rural Health Training Center Field Practicing Area) population and to evaluate its relationship with hypertension and diabetes. This Cross sectional study comprises of 163 subjects attending a local medical camp between 25- 70 years of age. Height, weight, BMI, systolic and diastolic blood pressure, fasting blood sugar and post prandial blood sugar were determined using standard methods. It was found that the prevalence of overweight and obesity was 15% and 34% respectively and it was predominant among women than men. Systolic blood pressure, diastolic blood pressure and post prandial blood sugar were significantly elevated in obese subjects than in normal BMI subjects (control). It was concluded that the results showed a higher trend of hypertension and diabetes with increase in BMI.

A cross sectional study on gender bias in Fertility and Family Planning choices in a Rural Area of Patan District of Gujarat, India.

Family planning is often regarded as the woman's responsibility, but there is growing recognition of the need to involve men in family planning programs.The objective of the study was to determine the role of men in family planning decision-making and toassess men’s attitude towards family planning. A cross sectional survey was carried out in Kungher, rural area of Patan district of Gujarat, India and 610 eligible couples were interviewed using a pre-tested, semi-structured interviewer based questionnaire to collect information pertaining to the couple’s socio-demographic data, fertility intentions & attitude towards contraception.It was seen that majority of the males were in the age group of 40 – 45 years (32.8%) and females were in the age group of 35 – 39 years (31.1%). Among the women whose spouse approved of their contraceptive usage, 41.3% of the women were using contraceptives and 58.7% were not using any contraceptive. 79.7% of the women who had frequent (more often) discussions with their partners were currently using contraceptives and 20.3% did not use any form of contraceptives despite frequent discussions. As regards perception of ideal family size it was observed that in 68.7% (95% CI: 63.2 – 74.2%) of cases there was agreement between husband and wife about the number of children that they should ideally have.It was concluded that men should be actively involved at knowledge, supportive and acceptor level, so that their decision making role can be utilised for promotion of contraceptives in appositive manner.Family planning programmes shouldinvolve men at all levels of the programme.