indian council of medical research - Pondicherry University DSpace ...

(i) Rural area
Cross scctior~al r~iorbldlty survcy
Th~s was camed out ~n chlldren studylng ~n the prlmary m~ddle and h~gh school
sectlons of the government school at Kedar The survey was conducted ~n one of the
classrooms of the school after obtalnlng pnor permission of the school pr~ncipal
Durlng each v~slto the school about 40-50 students were examlned In a week 2 to 3
vlslts were made Some children who were absent during the flrst vlslt were exam~ned
dunng subsequent vlslts In the school ~tself, or, at the sub center or at thelr res~dence
A rnlnlmum of 3 attempts were made to examlne each ch~ld The school vls~ts whre
sometimes Interrupted by inclement weather or unexpected holidays The cross
sectional morb~d~ty survey took f~fteen weeks startlng from November 1995
A detailed history of any illness suffered during the previous 2 weeks nature of rllness
type of treatment recelved school loss sustained and h~story of passing worms ~n
stools was obtalned from each chlld This was followed by a routine clinlcal
examlnatlon measurement of we~ght he~ght and tests for hear~ng and v~sual acqu~ty
The lnformat~on collected was entered on a predes~gned and pretested proforma
(Append~xl)
For measunng the~r height one of the walls of the classroom was calibrated
uslng a metallic tape
The chlldren were then made to stand agalnst the wall after
removlng thelr footwear, with their heels and buttocks touchlng the wall
They were
made to look stra~ght and the he~ght was measured to the nearest 0 5 cm
The wetght was taken to the nearest 0 5 kg after rnaklng the ch~ldren stand
erect on the weighlng machine w~thoutheir footwear