Bihar has highest level of undernourishment among schoolkids

New Delhi, Sep 5 (PTI) Bihar had the highest prevalence ofundernourishment among school-aged children andadolescents between 5-18 years, while stunting among childrenis highest in Uttar Pradesh, a health survey for 2014 hassaid. "Bihar recorded the highest prevalence ofundernourishment (33 per cent) and severe undernourishment(21.7 per cent) among 5-18 years age group whereas Uttarakhandrecorded the lowest prevalence of 19.9 per cent and 6.1 percent respectively," the annual health survey report Clinical,Anthropometric and Biochemical (CAB) survey said. The survey was conducted for 2014, for Bihar, Odisha,Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Assam,Uttarakhand and Uttar Pradesh by the office of registrargeneral and census commissioner. The CAB 2014 survey said that among the states, stuntingprevalence among children is highest in Uttar Pradesh (62 percent), while the highest prevalence of underweight and wastingis in Jharkhand (45.7 per cent) and Chhattisgarh (32.4 percent), respectively. "Across districts, highest prevalence of stunting, wastingand underweight outcomes is observed in Rae Bareli district(77.4 per cent) of Uttar Pradesh, Aurangabad district of Bihar(37.2 per cent) and Hamirpur district of Uttar Pradesh (70.2per cent), respectively," it said. The survey said that in rural areas, Rajasthan and Biharhave the maximum cases of undernourishment in the below 2 SDcategory at 33.8 per cent and 33.7 per cent respectively.Prevalence of overnourishment is defined as 2 SD above thereference population. Odisha has the highest prevalence of undernourishmentamong males at 36.1 per cent, followed by Rajasthan at 35.9per cent while Uttarakhand showed the least prevalence at 21.8per cent. "In the case of females, Bihar reported the highestprevalence at 30.5 per cent and Uttarakhand the lowest at17.8 per cent. "Prevalence of severe undernourishment is also high withBihar displaying the highest prevalence among both males andfemales at 24 per cent and 19.1 per cent respectively, whileUttarakhand recorded the lowest for males and females at 7.1per cent and 5 per cent respectively," the survey said. It also said that the percentage of underweightpopulation with body mass index (BMI) of less than 18.5 among18-59 age-groups is highest in Uttar Pradesh (30 per cent) andlowest in Chhattisgarh (15.4 per cent). PTI TDSKUN