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The
study involves assessment of Nutritional and Health status of
primary school children from 50 selected schools, covering nearly
3200 children in five districts of Andhra Pradesh, namely
Visakhapatnam, East Godavari, Kadapa, Medak and Nizamabad.
Methodology involves Anthropometric
Assessment,
estimation of blood hemoglobin from Dried
Blood Spot (DBS)
preparation using Cyanmethemoglobin
Method,
Clinical
Examination,
of the children for screening of Vitamin A deficiencies and
refractive errors, worm
load among children. Worm load is being estimated using the semi
quantitative
Thick
Smear Method (wet
mount)
recommended by the WHO, and Kato
Katz
Method
. These methods
require that stool is examined as soon as possible after
collection of samples. Hence, camp laboratories are organized in
each village for a period of about three days to examine stool
samples collected from the local school. The stool examination
process have been standardized according to WHO recommendations
for the Kato Katz method, under the supervision of technical
experts from the Nizams Institute of Medical Sciences.
The
study also elicits information about the hygiene practices among
school going children like source of drinking water, footwear
practices, hand washing practices, toilet usage practices, which
have direct implications on their health status. Alongside,
information about facilities in the school like infrastructure,
drinking water, history of previous health checkups conducted in
the school, observational data on midday meal menu, preparation
and serving practices is also generated which helps in correlating
the findings to the child’s existing health status.
The
results of the study which are awaited by the end of September
2009, help to design a cost effective intervention package to
address common morbidities among school children like, deworming,
iron supplementation coupled with Nutrition and Health Education
for the children and their parents. It is expected that these
interventions will enable the children improve their cognitive
abilities and school performance and can develop into Nation’s
useful resources. Intermediate and endline assessment of school
health status is proposed to evaluate the impact of the
interventions.
The
study is conducted for the Azim Premji Foundation as part of their
existing Educational Intervention in these schools, who are
working in partnership with Government of Andhra Pradesh and is
funded by the World Bank.
For
details please contact the Project coordinator, bsrikanthi@ihs.org.in
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