Physical Growth and Nutritional Status among Ao Naga Children of Nagaland, Northeast India

Abstract

The present study was carried out on 571 Ao Naga children including 289 boys and 282 girls aged 8 to 15 years from Mokokchung town, Nagaland. This study tried to find out the physical growth according to the height and weight and nutritional status according to the body mass index (BMI) following the classification by Cole et al. Our study revealed that the girls were taller than boys till 13 years and the boys became taller thereafter. As for weight, the girls were heavier during 10 to 14 years. The mean height and weight increased as the age advanced in both boys and girls. The prevalence of underweight was 30.12% and the prevalence of overweight was 2.28% among the Ao Naga children, and the girls were found to have a higher prevalence of overweight and the boys had a higher prevalence of underweight. This revealed that both underweight and overweight coexisted among the Ao Naga children from Mokokchung town, although the prevalence of overweight was not high.