A Comparative Study to Assess The Dietary Habits of School Children with Underweight and Normal Weight in a Selected Government Higher Secondary School at Kirumampakkam, Puducherry.

 

Mrs. K. Sandhiya

Lecturer, Dept. of Child Health Nursing, Awadh Madhav College of Nursing Science and Research, Gwalior.

 

ABSTRACT:

The most important thing in life is a good health. It is widely recognized that a healthy childhood is the foundation for a healthy adult life. Infants and children obviously need extra nutrition and proper physical activity and exercise for their growth and they consume the best within the family set up for their growth. Good dietary pattern is essential for building up bones. Habits formed in childhood have a long term impact on health and wellbeing. Over half of the world’s underweight children live in India. Dietary habits are the most important thing for being an underweight. So In order to create awareness among school children regarding good dietary pattern the investigator has conducted this study. The design adopted was descriptive comparative survey. Total number of sample was 60. Among this 30 children were from normal weight and 30 children were from underweight was selected by non -probability purposive sampling technique. The underweight and normal weight children were categorized by using CDC growth chart. The data gathered were analyzed by using both descriptiveand inferential statistics. The study revealed that the mean dietary habits of underweight children score was 77.4 and the normal weight children score was 95.3, it was higher than the mean of underweight children. The obtained ‘ p’ value was 0.001. Which  implies that there was significant difference between the dietary habits of underweight and normal weight children at p<0.05 level.  Hence it was inferred that the stated research hypothesis was accepted. The results of this study showed that normal weight children have followed good dietary habits compared to the underweight children.

 

 

 

INTRODUCTION:

The most important thing in life is a good health. Nutrition and activity levels have a key impact on children’s health and wellbeing. Children who partake in regular physical exercise remain mentally alert, have enhanced level of concentration, are more likely to be active adults, have a reduced risk of heart diseases and experience a boost in confidence and self-esteem².

 

Over half the world's underweight children live in India, Bangladesh and Pakistan, says a new UNICEF report on the global progress on children's issues. About 5.6 million children worldwide die every year for lack of adequate nutrients, approximately 47% of India's under-five population is underweight⁵. A study of global hunger states that India has highest prevalence of underweight children. The most common cause of a person being underweight is primarily malnutrition caused by the unavailability of adequate food. The effects of primary malnutrition may be amplified by disease; even easily treatable diseases such as diarrhea may lead to death. Some people are under weight due to genetics; others due to poverty. India is home to 42 percent of the world's underweight children and 31 percent of its stunted children, according to 2010 Global Hunger Index report. Being underweight causes increased mortality at rates comparable to that seen in morbidly obese people⁵.  Life style is the most important thing for being an underweight. Thus the investigator felt the present study will provide information about good dietary habits among school children in selected school at Kirumampakkam, Puducherry.

 

OBJECTIVES:

1.      To assess the dietary habits of underweight children and normal weight children.

2.      To compare the dietary habits of underweight children and normal weight children.

3.      To associate the dietary habits of underweight children and normal weight children with selected demographic variables.

 

HYPOTHESIS:

H₁: There is a significant relationship between the dietary habits of underweight and normal weight children.

 

MATERIALS AND METHODS:

Research approach:

Quantitative research approach was adopted for this study⁴.

 

Research design:

A descriptive and comparative survey design was used in this study³.

 

Population:

The target population selected for this study included children between the age group of 13 to 14 years in Government Higher Secondary School at Kirumampakkam, Puducherry.

 

Sample:

Under weight and normal weight school children who were fulfill the sampling criteria selected for this study.

 

Sampling method/ technique:

Non-probability purposive sampling technique was used to select the samples.

 

Sample size:

The sample size for the present study was 60 children, 30 children with underweight and 30 children with normal weight between the age group of 13 to 14 years who fulfilled the inclusion criteria.

 

Criteria for sample selection:

Inclusion Criteria:

·        School children of both sexes.

·        Under weight and normal weight school children who were between the age group of 13-14 years.

·        Those who were willing to participate.

 

 

 

Exclusion Criteria:

·        Children aged more than 14 years

·        Children who were physically challenged.

 

Data collection procedure:

A formal permission was obtained from the Principal of Government Higher Secondary Schools at Kirumampakkam and data was collected. The School children, who fulfilled the inclusion criteria, were selected using purposive sampling method. After obtaining the signature in the consent form, the underweight and normal weight children were identified based on CDC growth chart. Then the developed tool was given to the children to select the answers based on their dietary habits. 

 

Method of data collection:

Structured interview

 

Description of the tool:

The tool used for this study was a structured questionnaire with 2 parts.

 

Part I: Consists of demographic variables such as standard of education, sex, educational qualification of father and mother, occupation of father and mother, residence, family income per month etc.

 

Part II: This part was consists of structured questionnaire related to dietary habits to know the eating pattern of samples.(The reliability was checked by Karl Pearson’s correlation coefficient method. The ‘r’ value was 0.97)

 

Table 1 shows that all children 30 (100%) from both group were studying 8^th standard, with regard to sex 15(50%) of children were male and 15(50%) of children were female in underweight and in normal weight 17(56.7%) of children were female and 13(43.3%) of children were male. With regard to educational qualification of the father, most of them from both groups were illiterate 12 (40%).With regard to educational qualification of the mother most of the normal weight children’s mother were illiterate compared to the underweight children’s mother. With regard to mode of travel most of the underweight children 28(93.3%) and normal weight children 23(76.7%) were coming to school by walk.

 

Table 2. Reveals that, the mean of dietary habits of  underweight children score was 77.4 and the normal weight children score was 95.3. It was higher than the mean of underweight children. The standard deviation of dietary habits of underweight children was 9.77 and normal weight children was 5.05.The obtained ‘p’ value was 0.001. Which implies that there was significant difference between the dietary habits of underweight and normal weight children at p<0.05 level. Hence it was inferred that the stated research hypothesis was accepted.

 

 

DATA ANALYSIS AND INTERPRETATION:

SECTION I:

Table 1: Frequency and Percentage Distribution of Underweight Children and Normal Weight Children with their Demographic Variable   N=60

S.NO	Demographic characteristics	Under  weight		Normal weight
		Frequency	%	Frequency	%
1	Standard of education  a) 7th standard  b) 8th std  c) 9th std	- 30 -	- 100% -	- 30 -	- 100% -
2	Sex of the child   a) Mal   b) Female	15 15	50% 50%	13 17	43.3% 56.7%
3	Educational qualification of the father  a) Illiterate  b) Primary education  c) Secondary education  d) Graduate	12 9 9	40% 30% 30%	12 12 6	40% 40% 6%
4	Educational qualification of the mother  a) Illiterate  b) Primary education  c) Secondary education  d) Graduate	8 10 12	26.7% 33.3% 40%	17 11 2	56.6% 36.7% 6.7%
5	Occupation of the father  a) Government employee  b) Private worker  c) Cooley  d) Self employment	4 - 24 2	13.3% - 80% 6.7%	1 3 20 6	3.3% 10% 66.7% 20%
6	Occupation of the mother  a) Government employee  b) Private worker  c) Cooley  d) House wife	1 - 24 5	3.3% - 80% 16.7%	1 1 14 14	3.3% 3.3% 46.7% 46.7%
7	Residence  a) Urban  b) Rural	29 1	96.7% 3.3%	30 -	100% -
8	Family income per month  a) Below Rs.5000/-  b) Rs. 5001-10,000/-  c) Above Rs.10,001/-	29 1 -	96.7% 3.3% -	29 1 -	96.7% 3.3% -
9	Number of members in the family a) Three b) Four c)  Five d) More than five	2 7 21 -	6.7% 23.3% 7% -	1 10 19 -	3.33% 33.3% 63.3% -
10	Type of family a) Nuclear family b) Joint family	14 16	46.7% 53.3%	16 14	53.3% 46.7%
11	Ordinal position  of the child a) First b) Second c)  Third d) Fourth	13 11 6 0	43.3% 36.7% 20% 0	11 10 7 2	36.7% 33.3% 23.3% 6.7%
12	Mode of travel to go to school a) Walk b) Bicycle c)  Auto d) Bus e)  Motor cycle	28 - - 2 -	3.3% - - 6.7% -	23 7 - - -	76.7% 23.3% - - -

 

SECTION II

Table 2:  Mean, Standard Deviation of Dietary Habits of Underweight and Normal Weight School Children. N= 60

S.No	Variables	Mean	Standard deviation	P value
1.	Underweight	77.4	9.77	001*
2.	Normal weight	95.3	5.05

*Significant at p<0.05 level

 

Fig.1.  Comparison of dietary habits among school children with underweight and normal weight.

 

 

SECTION C:

Table:3 Association of the dietary habits among underweight children and normal weight school children with their selected demographic variables.

S.NO	Demographic characteristics	Chi-square Df	p-value
1	Sex of the child a) Mal b) Female	0.268 (1)	0.605 (NS)
2	Educational qualification of the mother a) Illiterate b) Primary education c) Secondary education d) Graduate	10.430 (2)	0.005* (S)
3	Occupation of the father a) Government employee b) Private worker c) Cooley d) Self employment	7.164 (3)	0.067 (NS)
4	Occupation of the mother a) Government employee b) Private worker c) Cooley d) House wife	7.895 (3)	0.048* (S)
5	Residence a) Urban b) Rural	1.017 (1)	0.313 (NS)
6	Family income per month a) Below Rs.5000/- b) Rs. 5001-10,000/- c) Above Rs.10,001/-	0.000 (1)	1 (NS)
7	Number of members in the family e)                 Three f)                 Four g)                 Five h)                 More than five	0.963 (3)	0.618 (NS)
8	Mode of travel to go to school f)                 Walk g)                 Bicycle h)                 Auto i)                  Bus j)                  Motor cycle	9.490 (3)	0.009* (S)

NS- Not significant *significant at p<0.05 level

 

Table 2shows that association of dietary habits among underweight and normal weight children with their demographic variables. The data revealed with regard to demographic variable there was statistically significant association seen in the variables of educational qualification of the mother, attainment of menarche and mode of travel to go to school. The obtained χ² value was 10.4, 10.8, 9.4 and the p value was 0.005, 0.004, and 0.009 respectively. It was significant at p<0.05 level. Hence it was inferred that there was a significant association between educational qualification of the mother, occupation of the mother, mode of travel to go to school between the underweight and normal weight children. Other variables were not significant.

 

DISCUSSION:

This study was conducted to compare the dietary habits of underweight and normal weight children in government higher secondary school at Kirumampakkam, Puducherry. The study revealed that the mean dietary habits of underweight children score was 77.4 and the normal weight children score was 95.3, it was higher than the mean of underweight children. The standard deviation of dietary habits  of underweight children score was 9.77 and normal weight children score was 5.05.The obtained ‘p’value was 0.001. This shows the evidence of underweight children was having poor dietary habits when compared to the normal weight children. It was significant at p<0.05 level.  Hence it was inferred that the stated research hypothesis was accepted. Findings of this  study were supported by the other study which was a ‘Body mass status of school children and adolescents’ conducted in kuala lumpur, Malaysia(2003). They concluded that the promotion of healthy eating and physical activities is required to address the problems of under- and over-nutrition in order to build up a strong and healthy nation in the future.

 

CONCLUSION:

This study was conducted to compare the dietary habits of underweight and normal weight children in government higher secondary school at Kirumampakkam, Puducherry. Dietary habits of each individual and eating pattern are interlinked. This study results shows that majority of normal weight children followed a good dietary habits compared to underweight children. And most of the underweight children had poor dietary habits.

 

RECOMMENDATIONS:

Based on the findings of the study, the investigator proposed the following recommendations.

1.      A replication of present study can be done with large sample size.

2.      A comparative study can be conducted between the rural and urban areas.

3.      A comparative study to assess the lifestyle can be conducted between underweight and overweight children.

 

REFERENCES:

1.       Marlow. R. Dorothy, Redding A Barbara. Text book of Paediatric Nursing. 6^th  edition. Tokyo: W.B Saunders Company;1998

2.       Whaley and Wongs. Nursing Care of Infant and Children. 5^th  edition. New Delhi: Mosby Publishers; 2005

3.       Polit D.F Hungler. Nursing Research Principles and Methods. 6^th  edition. Philadelphia: Lippincott Company;1999

4.       Sharma. K. Suresh. Nursing Research and Statistics. 1^st edition, Published by a division of Elsevier India Private Limited. Reprinted 2011

5.       Ogden CL, Carroll MD, Flegal KM. High body mass index for age among US children and adolescents (internet). 2004(cited on july6).available from: http://www.wikipedia.com

 

 

Received on 31.07.2014           Modified on 05.09.2014

Accepted on 20.09.2014           © A&V Publication all right reserved