Rural kids also prone to obesity, diabetes: Study

VADODARA: Underweight children and stunted growth have traditionally been observed in children in rural areas, but an ongoing study also points out that some children may be suffering from early obesity as well as symptoms of diabetes. A pilot project at a village near Vadodara has hinted that one-third of the children examined there suffered from these symptoms.
In a surprising outcome of a survey of 250 children in and around Varnama near Vadodara, nearly 64% under the age of 10 years were found to be suffering from iron deficiencies, calcium deficiencies, blood pressure, early obesity and early symptoms of diabetes. The surprising fact though is that 83 children were found to have symptoms of either early diabetes, early obesity or even both.
"We were expecting a high rate of malnourishment, but such a high percentage and the fact that the children have such serious health issues is surprising. Children in rural areas are not supposed to suffer from lifestyle disorders like high body-mass index (BMI)," said Dr Uma Nayak, head of the paediatric department at GMERS Hospital, Gotri.
Doctors believe that changing eating habits and dropping nutritional value of meals are principal reasons behind these findings. "Fried snacks are easily available at cheap prices. The shiny packets attract children and parents buy them to keep the child from crying when they are working. But these have almost zero nutritional value and are essentially just fats. Once the children fill up their stomachs with these, they hardly have any place left for proper home-cooked meal, which has the required nutrition," said GMERS dean and paediatrician Dr Indira Parmar.
"The fact that these children do not have lanky frame is because of the fat intake. They might look perfectly fine externally, but they are not getting the important nutrients needed for proper growth in the early ages," added Nayak.
The survey was conducted by the community health department (CHD) of GMERS Hospital in association with Varnama rural health training centre and Vadodara urban health training centre to observe the national nutrition week that started on Monday.
Around 77% children surveyed were malnourished. Nearly 138 children fell into the less dangerous yellow zone, while 55 children were critically malnourished and were classified in the red zone. Of the 55 children in the red zone, 33 were under the age of five years.