Prevalence of Overweight and Obesity Among Students of Government and Private High Schools in an Indian State With Significant Tribal Population: A Cross-Sectional Analytical Study

BACKGROUND

Overweight and obesity among school-going children is an emerging public health problem in the country. The information available on the true extent of obesity and overweight among school-aged children is limited. Hence, the present study has been conducted to determine the prevalence of overweight and obesity among high school students in Jharkhand, India.

METHODOLOGY

This was a cross-sectional study conducted among 1162 students of government and private schools of Ormanjhi block, Ranchi district, from July 2022 to December 2022. A predesigned, semi-structured, pre-tested questionnaire containing different sections namely sociodemographic characteristics, and health parameters were used for the study subjects. Clinical examination and anthropometric measurements of height, weight, and waist and hip circumferences were taken using standard equipment to calculate body mass index (BMI) and central obesity (waist-hip ratio).

RESULTS

The prevalence of overweight and obesity was more at 14 years of age (30.2%), among boys (18.1%), and among students practicing the Islam religion (51.1%). Moreover, the prevalence of overweight and obesity was found to be highest in private schools (66.2%), and that was statistically significant (p<0.001).

CONCLUSION

The prevalence of overweight and obesity was found to be significant with respect to age, gender, and religion. The findings from this study would be helpful in raising awareness among students, parents, teachers, and health professionals about the influence of overweight and obesity on a child's physical, social, and psychological well-being, and this, in turn, would facilitate parents, students, and teachers in the adoption of a healthy lifestyle.

Effects of anticonvulsant drug on liver enzymes among children in a tribal state of India: A longitudinal study

Introduction

Epilepsy is a syndrome of various neurological disorders. Idiosyncratic hepatotoxicity is a rare adverse effect associated with antiepileptic drugs (AED) therapy. Antiepileptic drugs may produce hepatic injury as part of a more widespread hypersensitivity reaction. Laboratory monitoring of asymptomatic effects may allow for the early detection of hepatotoxicity. So the present prospective longitudinal study was carried out to determine the effects of Anticonvulsant drug on liver enzymes among Epileptic Children.

Materials Methods

A prospective observational study was conducted among children with seizure disorder attending Paediatric outdoor patient Department of Rajendra Institute of Medical Sciences, Ranchi from February 2014 to October 2015. 50 children with newly diagnosed or untreated seizure disorder were included in case and 50 children of both sexes with same age group as cases were selected as control who did not have seizure. Children with age ranging from 2-10 years were included by consecutive sampling technique. Data was analysed using Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) software version 25(IBM Corp., Armonk, NY, USA). Paired t test was used to compare the mean values of liver enzymes amongst the children."P-value" was considered to be non - significant if found ≥ 0.05 and significant if P-value was found to be <0.05.

Results

In the present study there was no significant alteration of hepatic profile after treatment with valproate except serum alkaline phosphatase which was increased from the initial value than control group and was statistically significantly with P value of less than 0.05.

Conclusion

We concluded that these Antiepileptic drugs are safe to use in children up to 1 year.