Résumé
To assess nutritional status of adolescents (10-12 years) from non government funded schools (private) of Gujarat, India. Teachers & parents of adolescent children were assessed regarding their knowledge, attitude and practices of healthy dietary & lifestyle behaviours. School canteen services were also critically evaluated. Parent’s willingness, to start a nutrition program in the school was also assessed. A cross sectional study was conducted on adolescents (10-12 years) from two selected private schools. Anthropometric, biophysical and hemoglobin estimations were done on all children. Lipid and glucose profile was conducted only on over weight (including obese) children. Results reveal that canteen offered unhealthy food. Teachers and parents had insufficient knowledge about healthy behaviors. Most (53.5%) of the parents agreed to the changes proposed for canteen menus. About 3/4th of the subjects were malnourished (78.9%), with more (53.7%) being under weight than over weight and obese (25.2%). Similarly, more than half (55.1%) of the subjects were anemic. Central obesity as indicated by WHtR & WC was 21.6% and 9.0% respectively. The burden of sub optimal blood pressure was very high (26.3%) among adolescents (Pre hypertension 13.7% and hypertension 12.6%). Hence, malnutrition along with anemia and high blood pressure were significant problems in private schools. Schools being the best setting to approach adolescents and parents, multi disciplinary programs should be part of school policies to prevent and manage triple burden of malnutrition and its adverse consequences among the adolescents from private schools.
Résumé
Objective To assess efficacy and compliance of prescribed 9 days cyclic menu on hypertensive subjects (40 to 70 yr) of urban Baroda. Method Sixty four confirmed hypertensive subjects were purposively selected. Anthropometry and baseline blood pressure values were measured on basis of which subjects were divided into stage 1 and stage 2 hypertensive categories. Subjects were then divided into experimental and control group after matching for age, initial blood pressure levels and body mass index. Experimental group was given 9 days prescribed cyclic menus (low sodium<3 gm/day, high potassium-4gm/day, calcium- 1200mg/day, magnesium-500 mg/day with partial substitution of LONa salt) earlier checked for acceptability, while control group did not receive any of these. Compliance of diet was checked using compliance card. Post intervention data - blood pressure and weight of subjects was collected after 12 weeks of intervention. Result Experimental group subjects belonging to Stage 1 and Stage 2 category demonstrated fall in mean blood pressure levels by 4/1.13 mm Hg and 5/1.13–1.97 mm Hg respectively and a mean weight reduction of 1kg and 0.5 kg respectively. In contrast, control group subjects showed little change in blood pressure values and no change in mean weight. Conclusion Prescription of low sodium, high potassium diet proved to be effective in reducing blood pressure levels of hypertensive subjects and the resulting positive changes in their weight and blood pressure serve to encourage them to adopt the healthy diet on long term basis.
Résumé
The present study was a situational analysis of household and community practices as per IMCI (Integrated Management of Childhood Illness) framework in rural Baroda, Gujarat. One PHC (Primary Health Centre) was purposively selected and out of the 17 AWCs (Anganwadi Centers) under this PHC, 6 were randomly selected. All households under these 6 AWCs having children less than three years of age were enrolled in the study. Data for knowledge, attitude and practices regarding 12 key family & community practices, nutrition & health services utilization for children and existing perceptions about infant feeding practices was elicited from mothers using a pretested questionnaire and focus group discussions. Results revealed that 38% mothers did not feed colostrum to the child in spite of most of them being advised to do so by TBA and Doctor/ANM (Auxiliary Nurse Midwife). Most households used open areas for waste disposal. Proper disposal of children’s feces was practiced only by 7% of the households. While few mothers knew about ORS packets, none of them knew the correct method of preparation and only 17% of the children with diarrhea in the past 2 weeks were given ORS. About 31% of the pregnant women did not get themselves immunized for TT and most of the deliveries took place at home. Supplementary food was the most frequently used service followed by growth monitoring while other services like preventive health check up were not used at all. The study thus indicates an urgent need to impart appropriate nutrition health education using behaviour change communication strategies.
Résumé
AIM: The profile of non communicable diseases (NCD) risk factors was identified in an industry by pre tested WHO's STEPS questionnaire. SETTINGS AND DESIGN: A cross-sectional survey of all employment categories of an Industry (2000 employees) was done after randomly selecting subjects (220) from worker (52%) and non worker categories (47.4%), after informed consent. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Information was collected on behavioural risk factors (STEP I), followed by anthropometric and blood pressure measurements by a trained investigator (STEP II). STEP III constituted biochemical assessment of "at risk" subjects (> 3 risk factors). STATISTICAL ANALYSIS: Percentage of subjects having NCD risk factors and the odds ratios were calculated. RESULTS: Overall risk factor profile of the study subjects revealed universal prevalence of 3 risk factors) with prevalence of hypercholesterolemia, hypertension and diabetes of 40.5, 38.2 and 19.1% respectively. CONCLUSIONS: A high prevalence of NCD risk factors in industrial setting was seen; therefore public health approaches are required at workplace settings to curtail the rising epidemic in the productive populations.