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(ii) Other epidemiological methods
Cross sectional morbidity survey and cohort study
I. School age ch~ldren consumed a d~ethat was s~gn~flcantly deflc~ent In calories,
proteins, vltamlns and Iron
2. The mean he~ght and we~ght of school ch~ldren were much below the standards of.
affluent lnd~ans and the Nat~onal Center For Health Stat~stics(NCHS) The
d~fference became wlder wlth lncreaslng age and was marked dunng the
adolescent penod
3. In chlldren between 512 years of age, 54 5% girls and 60 2% of boys were
malmounshed (p > 0 05 between the genders)
[bl S~ectrum of illnesses and their causes
(I) Ethnographic methods
Most of the people felt that fever, resplratory ~nfect~on, headache and abdominal paln
were the common illnesses In school age ch~ldren Among the respondents to the
questlonnalre (n=160), 95 0% thought that fever was a common illness In school age
ch~ldren. 85 0% thought that respiratory lnfect~on was common Headache was
cons~de~ed to be a frequent illness by 80 0% whereas 53 0% felt that abdominal paln
was common Anemla, angular stomatltls and worn infestauon (whlch were found to be
the commonly prevalent dlsorders on cross secttonal morb~d~ty survey) were not
cons~dered tllness by them The people In general were Ignorant about the etlology of
these dlsorders, most of wh~ch were attributed to water, heat, cold or food