Upper arm anthropometry has a potential role to provide useful estimations of body composition and nutritional status. Aims of the present cross-sectional study were to assess body composition and nutritional status of rural school-going children using upper arm anthropometric measures such as upper arm muscle area-by-height (UAMAH) and mid-upper arm circumference (MUAC) for-height. The present cross-sectional study was conducted among 1281 children of West Bengal, India (boys 619, girls 662) aged 5-12 years and selected using a stratified random sampling method. Anthropometric measurements of height, weight, MUAC and triceps skinfold (TSF) were recorded. Body composition and nutritional status were assessed using upper arm muscle area (UMA), upper arm fat area (UFA), UAMAH and MUAC-forheight. Age-sex-specific overall adiposity in TSF, UFA, arm fat index and upper-arm fat area estimates were higher among girls than boys (p<0.01), but UMA and upper-arm muscle area estimates were observed to be higher among boys than girls (p<0.05). High prevalence of undernutrition was found among both boys (53.15%) and girls (41.69%) using UAMAH (p<0.01). The overall prevalence of low MUAC-forheight was higher among boys (28.59%) than girls (25.68%) (p>0.05). Upper arm anthropometric measures, UAMAH and MUAC-for-height are useful for assessment of body composition and nutritional status among children.

Percent of body fat (PBF), fat mass (FM) and fat free mass (FFM) are useful indicators for the assessment of body composition. The present study was conducted among 1351 children (boys: 660; girls: 691) aged 5-12 years residing in West Bengal, Eastern-India. The children were selected using a stratified random sampling method. Anthropometric measurements of height, weight, triceps skinfold (TSF) and sub-scapular skinfold (SSF) were recorded using standard procedures. The PBF, PBF-for-age z-score (PBFZ) and body mass index (BMI) were subsequently calculated. Body composition was assessed using FM, FFM, fat mass index (FMI) and fat free mass index (FFMI). Age-specific mean values of FM ranged from 2.12-4.00 kg (boys) and 2.16-4.40 kg (girls). Age-specific mean values of FFM ranged from 14.45-23.93 kg (boys) and 14.01-23.03 kg (girls). Sex-specific mean differences between sexes were statistically significant in weight, height, TSF, SSF, PBF, PBFAZ, FM, FFM, FMI and FFMI (p<0.05), except in BMI (p>0.05). These results are important for future investigations in clinical and epidemiological settings so as to accurately identify the risk of lower or higher adiposity and body composition using PBF, FM and FFM.

Copyright 2018 by Sen J. This is an open-access article distributed under Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (CC BY 4.0), which allows to copy, redistribute, remix, transform, and reproduce in any medium or format, even commercially, provided the original work is properly cited. cc BackgroundPoor nutritional conditions, as well as excess adiposity levels, are the major public health problems of developing countries like India. ObjectivesThe aim of the present investigation were to assess the prevalence of undernutrition and overweight or obesity and their associations with certain socio-economic and demographic variables. Subjects and MethodsThe present community-based cross-sectional investigation was undertaken among 420 adult Bengali Muslim individuals (males: 182; females: 238) aged 18-59 years and residing in rural areas of Uttar Dinajpur district, West Bengal, India. Anthropometric measurements of height and weight were recorded using standard procedures and Body mass index (BMI= Weight/Height kg/m 2 ) was calculated. Prevalence of undernutrition (BMI<18.50 kg/m 2 ) and overweight or obesity (BMI≥25.00 kg/m 2 ) were determined using World Health Organization (WHO) cut-offs. The statistical analyses of descriptive statistics, ANOVA, chi-square analysis and binary logistic regression (BLR) analysis was performed using SPSS, Inc., Chicago, IL USA; version 17.0. ResultsThe overall mean height (164.22 cm vs. 152.65 cm), weight (57.03 kg vs. 48.70 kg) and BMI (21.18 kg/m 2 vs. 20.89 kg/m 2 ) were observed to be significantly higher among men than women (p<0.05). The overall prevalence of undernutrition and overweight or obesity were observed to be 22.86% and 12.86%, respectively. The BLR analysis showed associations of lower age group (i.e., 20-29 years) (odds ratio: 1.65) (p<0.05) and occupation (odds ratio: 5.61) (p<0.01) with undernutrition. Overweight or obesity was also observed to be statistically significantly associated with smaller family size (odds ratio: 2.09) (p<0.05). ConclusionThe present investigation indicates the simultaneous existence of double burden of malnutrition (i.e., both under-and overnutrition) among the Bengali Muslim adults of West Bengal, India. Appropriate intervention programmes are necessary to improve the overall nutritional situation.

The study aims to discuss elaborately about the origin of physical disabilities amongst the locals of Pure village in Varanasi district, India through proper hydrogeochemical facies, multivariate statistics and correlations, saturation indices of mineral phases, speciation of heavy metals, radiation surveys, and comparing the values of major ions and heavy metals with respect to the permissible limits of USEPA, WHO, ICRP, and BIS standards. The evolution of water is Ca-Mg-HCO3 type, as evident from Piper trilinear plot, with neutral to feeble alkalinity. From Gibbs’s diagram, origin of major ions in groundwater is found primarily to be chemical weathering of the rock forming minerals as all the samples fall in rock dominance zone. Mineral saturation indices modelling by PHREEQC suggest supersaturation of water with goethite, hematite, Fe(OH)3(a), and dolomite. Speciation studies of PG-4 having high U concentration (13 μg/l) reveal dominance of U4+ and Fe2+ species, thus confirming reducing environment in aquifer. The high concentration of iron minerals in water promotes adsorption of U4+ on their matrices thus reducing effective U concentration in water. The U values are higher in most of the drinking water samples as per safe limits indicated by ICRP and WHO suggesting that long-term use for drinking purpose may cause serious health crisis. Higher Sr values (119 ± 39 μg/l) in groundwaters, greater than minimum reporting level, as per USEPA, may be one of the contributing factors for physical disabilities of inhabitants.

Introduction: Skinfold thickness is now considered to be an important indicator of body composition and nutritional status. Assessment of subcutaneous adiposity is becoming very important due to increasing trend of overweight and obesity. The objectives of the present study were to determine age-sex specific subcutaneous adiposity using skinfold thicknesses and its use in assessment of nutritional status among children of Eastern-India.Material and Methods: The investigation was carried out among 1262 children (619 boys; 643 girls) aged 5–12 years of Darjeeling district, West Bengal. Anthropometric measurements of skinfold thickness were recorded using standard procedures. Age-sex specific smooth percentile curves of skinfold thickness were derived using the L, M and S model.Results: Sexual dimorphism was observed in TSF, SSF, SISF, PBF, Σ2SKF and Σ4SKF measurements between sexes in children (p<0.05). Age-sex specific mean values of skinfold thicknesses of TSF, SSF, SISF and PBF of girls were observed to be significantly higher than boys (p<0.05). The age-sex specific mean values of BSF, TSF, SSF, SISF, Σ4SKF and PBF did not show any age-specific trend in children. Comparison with the NHANES-III data showed poor attainment of subcutaneous adiposity and nutritional status.Conclusion: Results of the present study showed the age-sex specific variations in subcutaneous adiposity pattern in children. The comparisons of skinfold thicknesses with references showed unsatisfactory nutritional status among children. These findings are important for future investigations in field, epidemiological and clinical settings.