Prevalence of malnutrition in school-going children with special reference to Sthaulya and Karshya: A cross sectional survey study.

Introduction: Malnutrition implies both extremes of impaired nutrition; under-nutrition, over-nutrition. The state of Karshya (emaciation)/Atikarshya (excessive emaciation), Sthaulya (obesity)/Atisthaulya (excessive obesity) described in Ayurveda represent both aspects of malnutrition. Reliance on qualitative observations and insouciance to anthropometric indices makes it challenging and arduous to assess malnutrition with Ayurveda perspective in research studies. This study aimed to ascertain prevalence of malnutrition in school-going children using Ayurvedic parameters of malnutrition with special reference to Sthaulya, Karshya and assess compatibility of these parameters to anthropometric indices for assessing malnutrition. Methods: A cross-sectional survey study involving 1001 students in 6-16 years age group from 10 urban, rural schools in ******* was carried out. After obtaining ethical clearance, parental consent and participants’ assent, anthropometric measurements of students were taken and presence of signs, symptoms of Sthaulya, Karshya was noted. All data were analysed in Microsoft Excel. Results: Based on Ayurvedic parameters a very high prevalence of malnourishment (51%) with 112 (11.18%) children in Sthaulya, an exorbitant number of 399 (39.86%) children falling under Karshya category was observed. Conclusion: Symptoms of Sthaulya, Karshya described in Ayurveda are a good measure to screen and assess malnourished children. A fair correlation was observed between symptoms of Sthaulya/Karshya and anthropometric measurements was noted. Ayurvedic parameters were more sensitive than BMI in recognising children at borderline undernutrition while they failed to record overweight, marginally obese children.