Pre-Adoleseent Growth Studies among the Ahirs of Haryana

Abstract

A cross-sectional growth study was undertaken among the Ahir boys and girts of Mahendragarh district of Haryana. The study urns conducted among the school going children ranging the age from six to ten years. Anthropometric measurements were taken on 420 children (209 boys and 211 girls). A steady growth was observed for all the measurements in both the sexes with the advancement of age while, skinfold measurement did not showed a definite trend. It was observed thai the growth among boys is higher than to girls except for the sixth age group. Nutritional status of the children was observed through weight for age, height for age and mid upper arm classifications. It was observed that for weight for age classification, around 31.66 percent and 37.38 percent of children fall under grade-I and grade-II malnutrition respectively. Height for age classification showed that 60.71 percent are under mild retardation and for mid upper arm circumference classification 48.33 percent and 29.28 percent were normal and mild malnourished respectively. Based on the above indices it is inferred that, the nutritional status of the Ahir children were below normal and are mildly malnourished.