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infections (2.7%). Seven children had leprosy and 4 had tuberculosis Five children
had periodontal disease.
4. Cervical adenitia was prevalent in 29.4% of the children, refractive emn in 5.8%,
deafness in 4.5% and congenital malformation in 2.7 % of the children. One child
had rheumatic heart disease. There were 8 children with lameness and 1 child with
stammering. Three children had seizure disorder.
5. There was no significant difference between girls and boys in the overall prevalence
of morbidity or in the mean dlsorder per child (p > 0.05). However, sign~ficant
differences were found in the prevalence of anemia and worm infestation which
were more common in girls (p c 0.05); and vitamin A and riboflavin deficiency, skin
infections, injuries, penodontal disease and cervical adenitis whlch were more
common In boys ( p < 0.05).
6. The mean age at menarche was 13.6 (f 1.05) years.
Cohort study
A cohort of 93 glrls and 116 boys in the age group 5-20 years from 99 households were
followed fortnightly for one year
1. There was a total of 127 and 179 episodes of illnesses in girls and boys
respectively, with an incidence of 1,400 episode of illnesses11,000girls/year and
1,500 episodes of 1llnesses11.000 boyslyear (p > 0.05 between the genders)
2. The commonest illnesses were fever, resp~ratory infection, headache and
abdominal paln wlth an lncldence respectively of 67511,000, 26811,000, 22511.000
and 17711,000.
3. The mean duration of fever was 1.9 (? 1.64) days, respiratory infection 2 9 (i 0.81)
days, headache 1.1 (+ 0.44) days, abdominal paln 1.1 (It 0.49) days and diarrheal
disorders 1.4 (i 0.79) days. No signlflcant difference between girls and boys was
observed with respect to the duration of illnesses (p > 0.05)
4. Most of the illness eplsodes occurred ~n the pre-monsoon (July- September) and
monsoon (October-December) penod.