Prevalence of nutritional deficiencies other than anaemia among students of government commerce college of Gandhinagar, Gujarat: a cross sectional study

Abstract

INTRODUCTIONAdolescence and young adulthood are periods of critical development and transition. These young people undergo major physical, cognitive, and psychosocial changes. These changes have important implications for health. As young people become increasingly independent, they face significant choices in areas such as diet, substance use, sexuality, physical activity and use of health care services. These choices are shaped by individual, family, social environments, and other contextual factors. A college is a key location for educating students about health, hygiene and nutrition, and for putting in place interventions to promote the health of students. At the same time, poor health, poor nutrition and disability can ABSTRACT Background: Adolescence and young adulthood are periods of critical development and transition. Adolescent constitutes over 23% of the population in India. Nutrition and health needs of the adolescent are more because of more requirements for growth spurt and increase in physical activity. The aim was to study prevalence of nutritional deficiencies other than anaemia among students of Government Commerce College. Methods: The study was carried by Medicine Department, GMERS Medical College, Gandhinagar, India during period from July 2016 to August 2016 in purposively selected government college of Gandhinagar city. After taking the permission of principal of college and consent of the students, 421 students were examined for signs of various nutritional deficiencies other than anaemia. The data was collected by predesigned, pretested proforma and analyzed using SPSS 17.0 (Trial Version). Results: Out of total 421 students 205 (48.6%) were female. Mean age of the study students was 19.8±1.66 years. Maximum numbers of the students were in the age group of 18-21 years (60.5%). Mean age of female and male students was 19.7±1.79 years and 19.9±2.01 years respectively. The study revealed that vitamin A deficiency was present in 28 (7.0%) students. Vitamin B complex deficiency signs were seen in 96 (23.1%) students. Vitamin C deficiency signs were seen in 44 (10.5%) students. PEM was observed in 55 (13.2%) students. Essential fatty acid deficiency was observed in 60 (14.4%) students. Conclusions: High prevalence of nutritional deficiencies among these students needs great attention and health education.

Cognitive hallmarks of insomnia and its influence on cardiac response to handgrip test among medical students

“…The prevalence of nightmare at 6% in this current study is comparable to the prevalence of 3% and 4.7% in India and China respectively. 17,41 Meanwhile, Schlarb et al in their study suggested that nightmare predicted insomnia very well contrary to the observation in our current study. 42 This is important as dream recalling has been previously reported to be the hallmark of REM sleep.…”

“…Unlike the previously reported low prevalence of poor sleep of 7.7%, 9.9% and 10.6% among university students in Germany, Lebanon and Nigeria respectively the observed prevalence of clinical insomnia is more than twice higher in this current study at 24%, which is nearly the same at 25% and 26% reported in India and Jordan respectively, but lower than the 40.7% in Athens. 5,8,[15][16][17][18] This current finding and previous studies aligned with the empirical evidence suggesting that poor sleep quality is preponderant among medical students globally. 19 However, our result did not find any gender-related association with insomnia, consistent with other previous finding, but contrary to other work that demonstrated such association.…”

Prevalence of nutritional deficiencies among school going adolescents of Vadodara, Gujarat, India: a cross sectional study

“…Individual, family, social environment and other contextual factors shape these choices. 1 be barriers to attending school and to learning. Schools provide an environment, for learning skills, and for development of intelligence that can be utilized by students to achieve their goals in life.…”