Mandal Gopal Chandra, Bose Kaushik, Kozieł Sławomir
Department of Anthropology, Vidyasagar University, Midnapore, India.
Homo. 2011 Jun;62(3):228-36. doi: 10.1016/j.jchb.2011.03.001. Epub 2011 Apr 13.
Body composition is a useful marker for assessing the adiposity of an individual. The amount of body fat (BF) differs with age, sex, environmental conditions and genotype, and is a good indicator of the health and nutritional status of a community. As the subcutaneous fat serves as a reservoir for energy during nutritional deprivation, lower BF in comparison with other studies indicates a lower energy intake by those children, who are affected by their lower socio-economic status. The objective of the present study was to evaluate the impact of socio-economic class, after allowing for sex and age, on body fatness among rural pre-school children of Bengalee Hindu ethnicity of Arambagh, West Bengal, India. The present study was undertaken at 20 Integrated Child Development Services (ICDS) scheme centers in Bali Gram Panchayat, Arambagh, Hooghly District of West Bengal, India. A total of 1012 boys and girls (aged 2-6 years) living in these areas were studied. The children were classified into two groups based on their social class: Schedule Castes (SC) and Non-Schedule Castes (NSC). In general, SC comprise socio-economically and educationally deprived individuals. Three-way analysis of variance was used to assess the effect of ethnicity on mid-upper arm circumference (MUAC) and sum of skinfolds (SS), allowing for age and sex. There was an increasing age trend in both these variables in both sexes in the two groups. All three factors had a significant effect on MUAC, whereas only age and social class had a significant impact on SS. In the case of MUAC, only one second order interaction (sex-age) was significant. In conclusion, we found that after controlling for age and sex, children belonging to the SC group had lower body fatness. These results implied that they were under more nutritional stress. There was also some evidence that at the early ages, girls belonging to the SC group probably received inadequate nutrition and as a result had lower body fat.
身体组成是评估个体肥胖程度的一个有用指标。身体脂肪量（BF）因年龄、性别、环境条件和基因型而异，是一个群体健康和营养状况的良好指标。由于皮下脂肪在营养缺乏时作为能量储备，与其他研究相比，较低的BF表明那些受社会经济地位较低影响的儿童能量摄入较低。本研究的目的是在考虑性别和年龄之后，评估社会经济阶层对印度西孟加拉邦阿兰巴格孟加拉印度族农村学龄前儿童身体脂肪的影响。本研究在印度西孟加拉邦胡格利区阿兰巴格巴厘村村委会的20个综合儿童发展服务（ICDS）计划中心进行。对生活在这些地区的总共1012名男孩和女孩（年龄在2至6岁之间）进行了研究。这些儿童根据社会阶层分为两组：在册种姓（SC）和非在册种姓（NSC）。一般来说，在册种姓包括社会经济和教育方面被剥夺权利的个体。采用三因素方差分析来评估种族对中上臂围（MUAC）和皮褶厚度总和（SS）的影响，同时考虑年龄和性别。在两组的两性中，这两个变量都呈现出随年龄增加的趋势。所有三个因素对MUAC都有显著影响，而只有年龄和社会阶层对SS有显著影响。在MUAC方面，只有一个二阶交互作用（性别-年龄）是显著的。总之，我们发现，在控制年龄和性别后，属于在册种姓组的儿童身体脂肪较低。这些结果表明他们面临更大的营养压力。也有一些证据表明，在早期年龄，属于在册种姓组的女孩可能营养摄入不足，因此身体脂肪较低。
