Parental Education, Children’s Nutritional Status and Non-verbal Intelligence in Rural School-children

Objective: To assess non-verbal intelligence and its relationship with nutritional status,nutrient intakes and parents’ education in school-children. Methods: A cross-sectional,observational study was conducted in children between 6-11 years, without any knownchronic disorder or intellectual disability. Data were collected regarding parents’ education,anthropometry and dietary intakes. Non-verbal intelligence was assessed by Raven’sColoured Progressive Matrices (RCPM). Results: In 323 enrolled children (52.9% boys), asignificant positive association was observed between RCPM scores and parents’ education(father’s rs=0.14, mother’s rs=0.22), height Z-scores (rs=0.14) and dietary intakes of zinc(rs=0.14), iron (rs=0.12) and folate (rs=0.14). Conclusion: Height in normal range, higherzinc, iron and folate intakes, and parental higher educational levels were associated withhigher non-verbal intelligence scores

Reference Centile Curves for Triceps Skinfold Thickness for Indian Children aged 5–17 years and Cut-offs for Predicting Risk of Childhood Hypertension: A Multi-Centric Study.

Objective: To create age- and gender-specific Triceps Skinfold Thickness percentile curves for Indian children; and to determine cut-offs for predicting the risk of childhood hypertension. Design: Cross-sectional. Setting: Multicentric, school-based, 5 major Indian cities Participants: 13375 children (7590 boys) aged 5-17 years Procedure: Data on height, weight, blood pressure, triceps skinfold thickness (using Harpenden Skinfold caliper) were collected. Reference triceps skinfold thickness percentile curves were derived for boys and girls by LMS (lambda-mu-sigma) method. Receiver operating curve analyses were performed to determine the optimal cut-off of triceps skinfold thickness centile for predicting the risk of hypertension. Results: Percentile curves for boys plateau around 13 years whereas for girls the curves increase steadily till the age of 17 years. Median triceps skinfold thickness increased by 7% to 9% till the age of 9 years in boys and girls. After 12 years, median triceps skinfold thickness decreased by 1% to 2% in boys but increased by 3% to 4% in girls. The optimal cut-off percentile yielding maximal sensitivity (68%) and specificity (74-78%) for predicting high blood pressure was the 70th triceps skinfold thickness percentile in both genders. Conclusions: Percentile curves for triceps skinfold thickness developed in the present study would be useful in the assessment of adiposity and the risk of hypertension in Indian children.