Abstract
Objective: The present study was undertaken to determine the overall prevalence of nutritional status among young adult of VIT University, Vellore with impact of psycho-somatic changes, primary health and climate change among fresh admission.
Material & Methods: Our study measured data on height and weight of adults aged 17-23 years of the newly admitted students (n=157; Girls=87 & Boys=70). One commonly used indicator i.e., body mass index (BMI; kg/m2), was used to evaluate the nutritional status of subjects. Based on BMI, chronic energy deficiency (CED) and obesity was determined accordingly.
Results: The mean BMI varies from 21.828 to 23.223 among girls between 17-23 years of age while 23.493 to 24.265 among boys of 17-19 years of age. The mean BMI ranges are 23.497, 23.493, 23.916, 22.378, 22.440 and 22.563 respectively among students of 17, 18, 19 20, 21, 22 and 23 years old. The nutritional status of freshers shows that 57.32% are normal with the estimated BMI whereas 11.46 % are suffering from undernutrition and 31.21% are with obesity.
Overall prevalence of CED was (11.3 %). Among 86 girls, 58 (67.5%) and 27.1% 0f 70 boys showed are psychologically stressed. The study has also intervened the shifting of time management and utilization before and after to VIT system. Students admitted freshly to VIT system either gained or lost their bodyweight during the first semester of academic courses; a total of 51 students (17 girls and 34 boys) lost their weight by 1-10 kg while a total of 36 students gained weight. During last month (10th October to 9th November, 2011), a total of 82 visits were made by 75 fresh students for different ailments at the VIT Health Centre with 1-3 consecutive visits for fever, headache, stomachache, cold, cough, sneezing, diarrhea, vomiting, allergy, skin rashes, acne, BP and diabetes; which demonstrate the possibility of sustainable interaction for acclimatization at VIT (data not elucidated).
Conclusion: The spatial movement of students to a new climatic zone for several years and to sustain a good primary health remains the core of this study. The primary health in terms of nutritional standards of students is good. The above average socio-economy and western campus environment offer an optimum and better healthy environment. Treated drinking water, hygienic food and pollution free environment with health care facility obviously lessen or remove the ill impacts of several changes including climate among residents.
Introduction
Students life in University campus is designed to create a forum where our youth can face challenges presented by university living conditions, peer pressure, handling freedom, thus equipping them for a positive future. VIT University offers a well-defined campus with international standards. It receives approximately 4000 thousands students from 28 states, 7 union territories of the country and from 40 different countries, every year. Majority of these fresh students are in-housed (~90%) and are admitted in different disciplines, from bachelor to doctoral degrees. VIT is situated in the southern state of India, Tamilnadu and in the third populous city in Vellore which is situated at the boarder of other two southern states, Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka. Vellore district lies between 12° 15’ to 13° 15’ North latitudes and 78° 20’ to 79° 50’ East longitudes in Tamil Nadu State. The average maximum temperature experienced in the plains is 39.5 degree Celsius and the average minimum temperature experienced is 15.6 degree Celsius. The region experiences an average annual rainfall of 795 mm, out of which North East Monsoon contributes to 535 mm and the South West Monsoon contributed to 442 mm.
Freshly admitted students from different parts of the country with varied climatic conditions are acclimatized in due time during their stay at VIT. During the first few months of their stay, it brings many changes/ impacts including nutritional disorder, psycho-somatic changes like, sleep disorder, loss of appetite, loss of weight; loneliness, inattentiveness towards classroom activities, fallible to diseases and disorders like allergy, diarrhoea, insect bites; emotional changes; cultural changes etc. and frequent visit to health centre for primary health care and many more parameters.
Climate change has shown a greater impact on all sorts of life forms including humans. Though students are from different provinces of home country, yet diversity is the key point in Indian system. Most of the fresh students come from home with all-round supports to VIT. This situation makes sheer contrast to the residential students’ life. Understanding the gravity of the situational impact, we initiated this small piece of work to evaluate the spatial and climatic change and their impact on primary health parameters among fresher VITians, those who got admitted during June, 2011.
Materials and Methods
The present study was cross-sectional and conducted in VIT University, Vellore, Tamil Nadu, which is situated about 130 km from Chennai , the provincial capital of Tamil Nadu. A total of 157 students with 87 female adults and 70 male adults aged between 17 to 23 years participated. They were admitted during June, 2011 and the study was carried out during August-November 2011. Data were collected with the consent of students. The data schedule includes the registration number, home town, the climatic parameters like temperature, humidity, rainfall; age, sex, body weight, height, food habit, time investment for study, game, sleep and other activities; psychological measures through different feelings like feeling cold, hot, uncomfortable, lone, melancholy, trauma; clinical presentations like headache, stomachache, diarrhea, vomiting, fever, cold, cough, sneezing; other conditions like malaria, jaundice, asthma, allergy etc with hospital visits and use of antibiotics, analgesics and antacid- before and after the admission to VIT system.
The self-attested height and weight were considered and these measurements were computed following standard techniques1 (Cogill, 2003) for estimation of BMI (body mass index) following standard equation: BMI = Weight (kg) / height (m2). Nutritional status was evaluated using internationally accepted BMI guidelines of World Health Organization (WHO, 1995)2, as shown in Table 1. We followed the WHO (1995)2 of the public health problem of low and high BMI, based on adult populations worldwide. Besides the mean and SD (standard deviation) were calculated accordingly. Data were analyzed by the one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) of duplicate trials. P-value (P <0.05) was considered statistically significant. The climatic parameters were enumerated from www.google.com and Wikipedia respectively.
Results
The study showed the nutritional status among freshly admitted students during June, 2011(Table 1 and Table 2). The mean BMI varies from 21.828 to 23.223 among girls between 17-23 years of age while 23.493 to 24.265 among boys of 17-19 years of age. The mean BMI ranges are 23.497, 23.493, 23.916, 22.378, 22.440 and 22.563 respectively among students of 17, 18, 19 20, 21, 22 and 23 years old (Table 1).
See Illustration 2
Table 2 shows the nutritional status of fresher which reveals that 57.32% are normal with the estimated BMI whereas 11.46 % are suffering from under-nutrition and 31.21% are with obesity.
See Illustration 2
Table 3 shows that students joined in the VIT system during 2011 and acquired a set of psycho-somatic display on the way of acclimatization. Among 87 girls, 58 (66.7%) and 27.1% of 70 boys showed either individually or in combination, they had been experiencing cold/hot/uncomfortable/trauma/melancholy/loneliness etc. during their stay. Majority of students declared the feeling of hot, uncomfortable and loneliness. The data presents that such feeling is more prominent among girls than boys (66.7% versus 27.1%). It has also been observed that girl students from Andhra Pradesh do not bear any temporal and spatial stresses.
See Illustration 3
Discussion
India is home to an extraordinary variety of climatic regions, ranging from tropical in the south to temperate and alpine in the Himalayan north, where elevated regions receive sustained winter snowfall. The nation's climate is strongly influenced by the Himalayas and the Thar Desert (http://www.indianetzone.com/40/types_indian_climate.htm)3. It has 4-6 seasons and is accommodated in the Indian calendars. Students in VIT are the true representatives of Indian subcontinent. They participate in the academic exercises with acclimatization and adaptation. The biased factor is the economy; students are mostly hailed from medium to higher class of economy. Hence the primary health in terms of nutritional standards of students is good4(Nerlander, 2009). The above average socio-economy and western campus environment offer an optimum and better healthy environment. Pre-treated drinking water, hygeinic food and pollution free environment with health care facility obviously lessen or remove the ill impacts of several changes including climate among residents. However, the study showed the nutritional status among freshly admitted students where the mean BMI varies from 21.828 to 23.223 among girls between 17-23 years of age while 23.493 to 24.265 among boys of 17-19 years of age.
Students joined in the VIT system during 2011 and acquired a set of psycho-somatic display on the way of acclimatization. It has been observed that the stresses are more with students from distant places than from near-by states. Girl students were found more vulnerable. However, girl students from Andhra Pradesh did not bear any temporal and spatial stresses. This might be because of uniformity in cultural and culinary activity and vicinity of the home state (World Bank, 2006; WHO, 2006; Puri et al., 2008; Nerlander, 2009) 4, 5, 6, 7.
CED is an indicator of malnutrition in women which can result in reduced productivity, slow recovery from illnesses, increased susceptibility to infections, and a heightened risk of adverse pregnancy outcomes. A woman’s nutritional status has important implications for her health as well as the health of her children. A woman with poor nutritional status, as indicated by a low body mass index (BMI), short stature, anemia, or other micronutrient deficiencies, has a greater risk of obstructed labour, having a baby with a low birth weight, having adverse pregnancy outcomes, producing lower quality breast milk, death due to postpartum haemorrhage, and illness for herself and her baby 8, 9 (Chatterjee, 1990; Boerma and Sommerfelt, 1993). Women’s height can be used to identify women at risk of having a difficult delivery, since small stature is often related to small pelvic size. The risk of having a baby with a low birth weight is also higher for mothers who are short 9, 10 ( Chatterjee, 1990; NFHS-III, 2007).
The study has also intervened the shifting of time management and utilization before and after to VIT system. The data shows drastic changes occurred in the time investment for study, game and sleep. The study hours has been declined from 10 to 0h, game hour from 3 to 0h and sleep has either increased or decreased among the studied students population. Interesting observation remains with the other activities which include drawing, dancing, composing, debating, acting, joking, singing, swimming, cycling, nature watching, the majority of the students had one or the other activity before but shifted to almost no activity at the first semester life in VIT. Though the sample size is to meager to draw any conclusion however from the obtained facts and figures, it demonstrates that the newcomers are under certain kind of psychological stresses.
Majority of the students (>98%) have and had good appetite. Among different food habits, there was 100 non-vegetarian (NV) and 57 vegetarian (V). Students admitted freshly to VIT system either gained or lost their bodyweight during the first semester of academic courses; a total of 51 students (17 girls and 34 boys) lost their weight by 1-10 kg while a total of 36 students gained weight.
During last month (10th October to 9th November, 2011), a total of 82 visits were made by 75 fresh students for different ailments at the VIT Health Centre with 1-3 consecutive visits for fever, headache, stomachache, cold, cough, sneezing, diarrhea, vomiting, allergy, skin rashes, acne, BP and diabetes; which demonstrate the possibility of sustainable interaction for acclimatization at VIT (data not elucidated). There remains every chance to be exposed to unknown pathogens of new geographic place and to fall sick 11 (Roland, 2004).
Due to the wide variation in cultures, religions, and levels of development among India’s 28 states and 7 union territories, it is not surprising that women’s health also varies greatly from state to state. Numerous studies indicate that malnutrition is another serious health concern that Indian women face 6, 8 (Chatterjee, 1990; World Bank, 1996). It threatens their survival as well as that of their children.
The CED is an indicator of nutritional status of subjects reflecting the economic background. According to the national report, the Central zone of India (42.55 %) has the highest prevalence of CED followed by Eastern zone (42.15 %), North-Eastern zone (36.51 %), Western zone (36.4 %), Northern zone (29.05 %), and Southern zone (28.85 %). Recent study from West Bengal revealed 28.3 % of college women population had CED. The present study shows the rate of prevalence of CED is 11.46% which is much less than any states of India and country India (35.6%). Punjab state has 18.9% of prevalence of CED. The present CED distribution is between Nigeria (13.5%) and Kenya (9.6%). The lowest minimum CED prevalence has been observed in Ghana (9.1%), Zimbabwe (7.9 %), Brazil (7.3 %), Uzbekistan (7.2 %), Kazakhstan (6.2 %), South Africa (5.0 %), Kyrgyz Republic (4.7 %), Morocco (3.6 %), Colombia (2.1 %), Turkey (1.8 %), Jordan (1.7 %) and Guatemala (1.6 %). Egypt (1.3 %) from North Africa had the lowest prevalence of CED.
Climate change is a major problem caused by the increase of human activities leading to several direct and indirect impacts on health. It is predicted that climatic changes will have wide-ranging harmful effects including increase in heat-related mortality, dehydration, spread of infectious diseases, malnutrition, and damage to public health infrastructure 4, 11 (Roland, 2004; Nerlander, 2009). Thus we should be concerned and should take appropriate measures to stop this climate change. Indirectly, changes in weather pattern, can lead to ecological disturbances, changes in food production levels, increase in the distribution of malaria, and other vector-borne diseases. Fluctuation in the climate especially in the temperature, precipitation, and humidity can influence biological organisms and the processes linked to the spread of infectious diseases (Roland, 2004). Students attended to study in VIT system are found to be vulnerable to new climatic zone at VIT, Vellore.
Conclusion
Students in VIT are the true representatives of Indian subcontinent. They participate in the academic exercises with acclimatization and adaptation. The biased factor is the economy; students are mostly hailed from medium to higher class of economy. Hence the primary health in terms of nutritional standards of students is good. The above average socio-economy and western campus environment offer an optimum and better healthy environment. Pre-treated drinking water, hygienic food and pollution free environment with health care facility obviously lessen or remove the ill impacts of several changes including climate among residents. Due to shortage of time climatic impact has not been elucidated. Hope, students from different climatic zone will be acclimatized well with due time. With exception, majority of students have good nutritional status; psychological and physical well-being.
Acknowledgement
JG is grateful to ARG and PP for their constant intellectual supports and to the VIT management. JG also acknowledges the help rendered by Dr. Nilkanthan, CMO, VIT Health Centre, Vinay Dubey, Research Associate, and students of VIT who participated in this study.
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Source(s) of Funding
VIT University intramural fund for the promotion and extension of research
Competing Interests
No, there is no competing interests
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