Study of anthropometric profile of working (labour) adolescent girls of urban slums of India

Abstract

Introduction: Adolescence is often described as a phase of life that begins in biology and ends in society. Adolescence is the developmental phase between childhood and adulthood with specific psychological attributes. In India, the adolescent population constitute 22.8% of the total population. There are around 239 million adolescents in India in the age group of 10-19 years presently. Our aim is to assess the anthropometric profile of working adolescent girls of slum area.

Method: Anthropometric data were collected using predesigned proforma of 696 working adolescent girls aged 10-19years by door to door survey in three randomly selected slums of Bilaspur, Chhattisgarh, India. The height, weight and body mass index of the working adolescent were compared with NCHS and Indian reference populations.

Result: Analysis of the cases revealed that the maximum number (45.40%) of adolescents were in 10-13years age group and minimum (27.01%) were in 17-19 years age group. In 14-16years 27.58% girls. The difference of mean weight of present study with NCHS standard 50th percentile of weight in various age group ranges from 11.16 to 18.5 kgs. Height of all the girls were below 50th percentile. Difference of present study’s mean height and NCHS 50th percentile in different age group ranges from11.7cms to 20.8cms, the average body mass index was below 15 in 10-12 years age group but was above 15 in 13-19 years age group. Difference of mean BMI of present study with NCHS Standard for different age group ranges from2.15 to 3.57.

Discussion: The anthropometric height, weight and BMI data of working adolescent of slum area were lower than Indian as well as NCHS standards. All the girls in the present study had weight and height less than 50th percentile of the National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS), Department of Health, Education and Welfare (DHEW), U.S.A. Standards.