Age and sex differences in human body physique and its association with nutrition: A crosssectional study among the Ao children from Nagaland, North-East India
Journal Title: Indian Journal of Nutrition - Year 2016, Vol 3, Issue 2
Abstract
The variation in human body physique has been a subject of interest to physical anthropologists and human biologists since time immemorial. It is important to understand and analyze the factors associated with body physique, in order to have a better understanding of the morphological structure of the human body. The present study has been carried out on the age and sex differences in body physique and its association with nutrition. Heath and Carter method of somatotyping was employed to access body physique, and Body Mass Index (BMI) to access nutritional status among the Ao Naga children aged 8 to 18 years from Mokokchung district of Nagaland, North-East India. The comparison of the somatotype components and categories between the age groups and between sexes were tested using t-test and chi-square test, and the comparison of somatotype components within the BMI classification was analyzed using one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA). A significant level at 0.05 was used for all analyses employing MS office excel and SPSS 17 for windows software. The result showed that, the somatotype component ratings of boys and girls were found to be 1.88-3.90-3.67 and 3.11-3.50-3.09 respectively. There was a clear agerelated change of mean somatotype components among Ao girls, and only minor changes were evident among boys. Also, remarkable sexual dimorphism was revealed with regard to somatotype components. The classification of BMI revealed that, both underweight and overweight coexisted, although the prevalence of underweight was significantly higher. There was also significant association between somatotype components and BMI, depicting that, the increase in endomorphy and mesomorphy components were a risk factor having predisposition toward certain diseases. Various intervention programs and preventive measures are required to improve the overall health status.
Authors and Affiliations
Temsumongla Longkumer
Keywords
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