Study on Children with Reference to Malnutrition and its Effect on Haematology and Serum Total Proteins

Abstract

The study was conducted on 80 male children, divided into three age groups (5-7, 8-10 and 11-12 years). These children were graded into five grades of malnutrition including normal following the criteria of Jelliffe (Alleyne et al., 1977). The results revealed 47.22 per cent normal children while 16.66, 22.22, 11,11 and 2.77 percent were suffering from 1st, 2nd 3rd and 4th degree of malnutrition, respectively. Overall means of children categorized in various degrees of malnutrition showed non-significant difference in haemoglobin, RBC, PCV and erythrocytic indices. However, RBC, Hb and PCV value were less in children graded in 4th degree of malnutrition. Hb showed significantly lower (p<0.05) levels in children grade into 3rd than first degree of malnutrition of 8-10 years. However, RBC count was significantly higher (p<0.05) in 3rd and 2nd degree of malnutrition in children of 11-12 years, while PCV was relatively higher in the same subjects of this group. In overall, 45 percent of children had less than normal haemoglobin, RBC or both. Out of these, 19.44 percent showed normocytic hypochromic, 30.55 showed normocytic normochromic, 8.33 microcytic hypochromic, 13.88 microcytic normochromic, 13.88 macrocytic hypochromic and 13.88 percent showed macrocytic normochromic anaemia. Serum to proteins showed non-significant difference in children graded in various degrees of malnutrition, however, the values normal subjects were relatively lower than those graded into various degrees of malnutrition.