Temporal trend of anemia among reproductive-aged women in India.

BACKGROUND: Anemia is one of the major leading nutritional deficiencies in India, and the most vulnerable groups are preschool and adolescent children and pregnant and lactating women. AIM: The main objective of the study is to determine the temporal trend of anemia among reproductive-aged women of age 15-49 years. METHODOLOGY: The study uses data from second and third rounds of the National Family Health Surveys (NFHS-2, 1998-1999, and NFHS-3, 2005-2006), conducted by the International Institute for Population Sciences. The dependent variable was the status of anemia of women. The determining variables were type of residence, age group, religion and castes, educational status, marital status, and household standard of living index. RESULTS: Anemia was most prevalent in the east zone for both the periods. The changes at the all India level were not much, but the north-east zone improved very well, whereas the south zone deteriorated drastically. The occurrence of severely anemic women in India varied between 1% and 2%. The highest prevalence rates were observed among women who were 15 to 24 years of age, illiterate, from non-Christian scheduled tribes (STs), unmarried, and whose standard of living was low. Rates of anemia have increased over time except in the case of Buddhists, Parsees, Jains, and the STs. CONCLUSION: From the viewpoint of our study, illiteracy and low standard of living may be the main causes of anemia among women in India. It is also necessary to take appropriate steps to curb anemia in women in their early adulthood.

Variation in height and BMI of adult Indians.

It is well known that height and weight are interrelated, and that both are related to socioeconomic variables. The objective of this study was to assess the effect of socioeconomic variables on the heights and weights of different groups of people, formed according to different levels of heights and weights, and to see whether there are sex differences in the variations in heights and weights. Data for adults aged 15-49 years were taken from the India National Family Health Survey-3 and descriptive studies and multiple linear regression analyses carried out. A clear positive association was found for height and BMI with economic level (except for overweight females in the case of BMI). In the case of BMI, it is age that seems to be the most influential factor. Surprisingly, the observed changes in height and BMI are not as expected for short and tall or underweight and overweight people; these sometimes behave in the opposite directions to that of normal height and weight people. The basic assumption of multivariate normality is not valid due to changing relations at different height and BMI levels.

Growth and nutritional status of preschool children in India: a study of two recent time periods.

BACKGROUND: Preschool children call for focused attention in India because India has the highest percentage of undernourished children in the world. OBJECTIVE: To compare the growth and nutritional status of Indian preschool children for the periods 1998/99 and 2005/06, SUBJECTS AND METHODS: Using data on weight and length/height as well as the sociodemographic background of preschool children from the National Family Health Surveys (NFHS) from 1998/99 and 2005/06, we determined the distribution of weight and length/height and their association with sociodemographic variables. RESULTS: The distributions of weight and length/height around the mean remained remarkably stable over age but were much greater in India than the international norms. The rates of growth of mean weight and length/ height were far lower in India than the international norms up to the age of 2 years. The temporal trend indicates declines in the percentages of undernourished (low weight-for-age) and stunted (low height-for-age) children over the 7-year period, although the degree of improvement was far better for stunting than for underweight. Mother's educational status is the only variable that has been found to influence child nutrition. CONCLUSION: The level of mothers' education needs urgent attention with top priority to reduce the prevalence of underweight and stunting of children. This also implies that, for future benefit, girls should be given more facilities for better education. Breastfeeding and weaning practices also need special attention.

Influence of ethnicity, geography and climate on the variation of stature among Indian populations.

This paper analyzes the variation in the mean stature of adult males of a variety of population groups in India and examines the influence of geographical, climatic and ethnic factors on it. A considerable variation in mean stature has been found with respect to these three attributes. Variation "between" ethnic groups compared with "within" ethnic groups was found to be much more than that of geographical and climatic zones. Scheduled Castes (SC) and Scheduled Tribes (ST) populations have much low average height than that of General Castes (GC). Climatically dry and semiarid zones have a tendency to have higher stature than in the Monsoon areas. The mean height has been found to be the highest in north India. It is closely followed by west India. An interesting feature is that as one goes towards east and south the mean height gradually decreases. It is the lowest in islands. The mean heights have been regressed on geographical, climatic and ethnic factors, after converting these factors into binary variables. The regression analysis has strengthened the findings, that there is a highly significant relationship between height and geographical, climatic and ethnic factors.

Growth and nutritional status of pre-school children in India: rural-urban and gender differences.

This cross-sectional study of growth and nutritional status makes an attempt to find the gender and rural-urban differences among Indian preschool children. This study is based on the data of weight and height of children aged 0-35 months taken from 26 States (total 26,369 children; 13784 boys and 12585 girls). The children are found to be lighter and shorter compared to International standards irrespective of age and sex. Boys are heavier and taller than girls. Urban preschool children are heavier and taller compared to rural counterparts. In the urban area, higher percentages of girls are affected by underweight (37.1%) and stunting (35.0%) than boys. In rural areas, the prevalence of underweight is also higher among girls (47.9%) compared to boys (45.7%), which is found to be much significant (p < 0.01). There is a significant rural-urban as well as gender difference in growth and nutritional status of Indian preschool children.

Prevalence of anemia and its determinants among nonpregnant and pregnant women in India.

This study investigates the severity and distribution of anemia among nonpregnant and pregnant women aged 15 to 49 years in urban and rural sectors of 26 states in India and its association with certain economic and biosocial factors. A national survey was conducted to collect data on hemoglobin, height, weight, and certain economic and biosocial factors of 72 660 nonpregnant and 5619 pregnant women. Nonpregnant women aged less than 25 years are most affected by anemia. Women's education and standard of living in the households have a vital role in reducing anemia. Urban and well-nourished women also suffer less from anemia. The severity of anemia is higher among pregnant than nonpregnant women. Efforts must be made to educate women and enhance their level of economic status so that the prevalence of anemia can be reduced substantially.

Socioeconomic differentials in nutritional status of children in the states of West Bengal and Assam, India.

Malnutrition among children is prevalent in almost all the states in India. This study assesses the extent and causes of malnutrition in two eastern Indian states with similar climates, namely West Bengal and Assam, using data from the National Family Health Survey 1998-99 (NFHS-2). The three indices of malnutrition taken for analysis are weight-for-height (WHZ), height-for-age (HAZ) and weight-for-age (WAZ). These are assumed to depend on birth order, preceding birth interval, parent's educational status, working status of the mother, mother's age at delivery of the children, source of drinking water, toilet facilities and standard of living of the household. Logistic regression was carried out separately for each of the three indices on the explanatory variables for both the states. It was found that not all variables are equally important in determining whether a baby is underweight, or suffering from acute or chronic malnutrition. Also, the importance of variables is not the same in the two states. It was observed that the coefficients associated with the variables in determining weight-for-height are not significant compared with those for weight-for-age and height-for-age.