INTERRELATIONSHIP BETWEEN BODY DIMENSION AND NUTRITIONAL STATUS AMONG THE RURAL SECONDARY SCHOOL CHILDREN

摘要

Studies on growth and physical development of the children are important as they provide determinants of a nation's health. Growth studies have an important place in the study of individual differences in form and shape, Appraisa! of the progress of acountry in the field of health can be made from time to time with the help of such studies. Measurements of height and weight are still the simplest and one of the reliable means by which the progress of a normal child is evaluated and gross abnormalities detected even when no other clinical sign of illness is manifested'. Numerous attempts were made in the last four decades or more to utilize the data on body measurements for the evaluation of nutritional status and the general health of children in this country. But there is very little information about diet and nutritional status of adolescents, particularly from rural areas in West Bengal. Therefore, there is a need to develop a database on the diet and nutritional status of the adolescents fromdifferent parts of West Bengal to enable the Governments and other Non-governmental agencies to formulate policies and Initiate strategies for the well-being of adolescent children. No concerted efforts have been made to establish norms of height, weightand other anthropometric measurements for age, rate of growth and pattern of physical development. Hence the main objective of the study was to collect suitable data for the construction of reference standards of growth and physical development and to make a current anthropometric database of rural Bengalee school boys aged TO through 15 years.