Nutritional status of school age children (6-15 years) using the new WHO growth reference in a rural area of Bengaluru, South India

Background: WHO AnthroPlus is a software which helps us to assess the nutritional status of school-age children and adolescents based on the new WHO Growth Reference 2007. Global Positioning System (GPS) with google earth is an innovative approach to map the spatial distribution of morbidities at the field level. The present study was undertaken to assess the nutritional status of school age children (6-15 years) using the WHO Anthroplus software, to map the spatial distribution of malnourished children using GPS and to list out the comorbid conditions associated with malnutrition. Methods: This was a cross sectional study conducted in the rural field practice area of a medical college, Bengaluru. School children in the age group of 6-15years were the study subjects. Sample size was 2730. The schools were selected by simple random sampling and children in these schools were selected. The sample size was equally divided between the age groups 1 to 10 years. The nutritional status was assessed using the new WHO anthroplus software. The GPS coordinates of the schools and a sub sample of malnourished children were recorded and the spatial map generated using the Google Earth software. Results: The prevalence of thinness, stunting, underweight and overweight/obesity were 30%, 19.3%, 35.9% and 5.7%. The spatial map generated using GPS showed distribution of malnourished children in the study area. Most common comorbidities among malnourished children were dental caries/oral conditions (28.2%), URTI (13.4%), skin diseases (6.3%) and anemia (5.3%). Conclusions: The WHO anthroplus software was helpful in assessing the nutritional status of children accurately. The prevalence of underweight, stunting and thinness were higher compared to overweight/obesity. The spatial map constructed using GPS and google earth showed the distribution of malnourished children accurately.