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

The height and weight of the chlldren were compared with the standards of affluent
Indian children (Agamal eta/., 1992) and National Center For Health Statistics, USA -
NCHS (Anonymous,l987a). The body mass index (BMI) was calculated by uslng the
formula we~ght(kg)xIOO/lhe~ght (cms)12. A BMI of c 0.13 was taken as an index of
under nutrit~on in children between 5-12 years. This value is close to that suggested by
Ramakrishnan el a1.(1992) as being applicable to children in Tamil Nadu
Visual ac~uity_ This was tested by the investigator using Snellen's chart. Those who
were found to have defective vision were screened once agaln in the f~eld by an
ophthalmologist to confirm the diagnosis.
Hearina. This was assessed uslng Rinne's test with a tuning fork of frequency 256.
Those children with defective hearing were subsequently examined by an
otorhinolaryngologist for confirmation of diagnosis. Owing to practical difficult~es
aud~ometry could not be done in the field.
Examination of other systems was done by standard clinical methods A d~agnos~s of
vltamln A deficiency was made only In the presence of both xerosls and Bitot's spots
(XIB) as per the recommendation of WHO (1976).
2 Cohort study
Considenng practical logistics, tt was designed to cover 25.0% of the total households
with children between 5-20 years. or. 100 such house holds, whichever was higher.
Uslng the census data. 100 families with children between 5-20 years of age were
randomly selected for monthly follow up for one year, for issues related to health. The
cohort was examined and interviewed by the investigator at regular Intervals. For
morbidity, the cohort was visited fortnightly and details of illness and treatment received
obtained. In order to study the variations in the dietary intake over a period of one Year,