American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, Vol 25, 432-436, Copyright © 1972 by The American Society for Clinical Nutrition, Inc.

Nutritional survey in rural population of Kumaon Hill area, North India

¹ From the Department of Medicine and Department of Preventive & Social Medicine, All-India Institute of Medical Sciences, Ansari Nagar, New Delhi-16, India

A nutritional survey of the residents of 12 villages in the Kumaon hills in North India has been performed on a total of 1,070 family members and 157 schoolchildren. Signs of nutritional deficiency and anthropometric measurements were recorded. Dietary history was taken by recorded actual measurement of the raw food to be prepared for consumption on 1 day. Stool examination was done by the formal ether concentration method and hematocrit was estimated by the capillary method.

Dietary histories revealed a substantially poor intake of proteins; 60% of the families consumed no animal protein and only 4.5% had an intake above 10 g/day.

Except for dental abnormalities, clinical signs of nutritional deficiency were not common. Anthropometric measurements, using the Harvard and ICMR standards, established wide prevalence of malnutrition, which can be summarized as follows:

a) ICMR weight-for-age, children under 6 years of age, 33.8% of the male, 32.9% of the female.

b) Harvard weight-for-age for the above age group, 86.2%.

c) Weight-for-head circumference, children under 4 years, 38.6%.

d) ICMR weight-for-age, persons 6 to 20 years, 33% of the male, 37% of the female.

e) Harvard triceps-for-age, different ages and sexes, range of 42.9 to 93.5%.

f) Weight-for-height, both sexes and different age groups, 30 to 70%.

g) ICMR weight-for-age and Harvard triceps skin folds-for-age, children of both sexes 5 to 14 years, 39% of the male, 74.5% of the female.

Parasitic infestation was detected in 66% of the cases. Ascariasis was the most common infestation. Packed cell volume studies showed low values in 58.9% of the cases.

It was further noted that family planning is rarely practiced by the families, living and hygienic conditions are extremely bad, and a number of tropical diseases are widely prevalent in this area.