Health profile of children of 5–13 years age group of municipal corporation schools of Ahmedabad.

Aims & Objectives: To prepare a health profile of children aged 5–13 years studying in Municipal Corporation schools of Ahmedabad & to correlate various morbidities with age & sex of the child. Study Design: Cross sectional descriptive study Sample Size: 513 students from various primary schools of Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation (AMC) aged 5–13 years. Study period: April 2008 to June 2008 Statistical Analysis: Simple proportions, Mean, Standard deviation Result: Mean age of children was 9, 17 years with SD of 7.6.Mean age of males being 9.43 with SD 7.73 & mean age of females was 8.46 SD being 10.05. Majority (60%) of children had no morbidity. Regarding the various morbidities, ENT problems contributed greatest share 86 (16.8 %), proportion of cases being much higher in males. ENT, Oral & Ophthalmic problems affected mainly children in 8–10 years age group while worm infestation was more among children in age group of 5–7 years.Regarding the Ophthalmic morbidities, main cause was refractive errors. Acute Suppurative Otitis media was the main cause of ENT morbidity.

Tobacco use among 5 to 15 years of children in one of the urban slums of Ahmedabad City.

Background: Use of tobacco in various forms is very rampant and it is seen even in young children. There has been a growing concern about negative effects of these substances on youth. This study was carried out to find the prevalence of the tobacco use and to identify factors associated with it in children of one of the urban slums of Ahmedabad city. Methodology: Personal interviews of 200 randomly selected children were taken and information was collected regarding various socio-demographic variables, reasons for addiction, willingness to quit tobacco, daily pocket money spent on tobacco and knowledge regarding hazards of tobacco use. The data was analyzed by using appropriate statistical software. Results: Out of total 200 children 80% were addicted to tobacco in some form. Mean age for children using tobacco was 11.48 years. More than 40% of their pocket money was spent on tobacco. Mean age of starting tobacco was 6.84 years. Average daily intake was around 4 packets. There was significant association found of tobacco use with parents' education, friends' and family members' addiction & availability of television at their home. 62.5 % of children were ready to quit tobacco. Knowledge about tobacco's harmfulness was there but was not sufficient to deter starting smoking. Conclusion: The finding of this study confirmed that there is high prevalence of tobacco use in 5-15 years of the children in the study area. Male gender, education of parents, addiction of parents and peer pressure were independently associated with current tobacco use. Health Education should be accompanied by more determined enforcement of health policies.