To the Editor: I welcome the queries on my research article [1]. I have the following replies:
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Socioeconomic status was determined by updated Kuppuswamy’s socioeconomic scale [2].
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WHO charts for 5–18 y-old children are based on statistical reconstruction of 1977 National Centre for Health Statistics data [3]. WHO has stated that it would not be possible to have prescriptive growth standards for children between 5 and 18 y of age because of environmental variables. Hence, it is necessary to have country-specific growth charts. The revised IAP growth charts for 5–18 y old Indian children are based on data collated from different regions of India [4]. We made the assessment of nutritional status using both international and national growth references.
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The overall prevalence of stunting, thinness, overweight and obesity were observed 21.15 %, 40.32 %, 4.30 % and 0.36 % respectively using WHO reference data [5] while using the IAP growth charts [4] as reference, the overall prevalence of stunting, thinness, overweight and obesity were observed 9.09 %, 12 %, 7.09 % and 0.36 % respectively. Thus, using the country-specific growth charts (IAP growth charts), a lower rate in the overall prevalence of undernutrition (stunting, thinness) and a higher rate in the overall prevalence of overnutrition (overweight) was found.
References
Sarkar SR, Sil SK. Nutritional status of rural Bengali adolescent boys of Tripura. Indian J Pediatr. 2015. doi:10.1007/s12098-015-1856-6.
Kumar N, Gupta N, Kishore J. Kuppuswamy’s socioeconomic scale: updating income ranges for the year 2012. Indian J Public Health. 2012;56:103–4.
de Onis M, Onyango AW, Borghi E, Siyam A, Nishida C, Siekmann J. Development of a WHO growth reference for school-aged children and adolescents. Bull World Health Organ. 2007;85:660–7.
Khadilkar V, Yadav S, Agrawal KK, et al. Revised IAP growth charts for height, weight and body mass index for 5 to 18 year old Indian children. Indian Pediatr. 2015;52:47–55.
World Health Organization. Growth Reference Data for 5–19 years. 2007. Available from URL: http://www.who.int/growthref/who2007/en/index.html. Assessed on September 10, 2014.
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Sarkar, S.R. Nutritional Status of Rural Bengali Adolescent Boys of Tripura: Author’s Reply. Indian J Pediatr 83, 1058 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12098-016-2031-4
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12098-016-2031-4