Risk-factors of non-communicable diseases in urban adolescents in Western India
Adolescents, who were once considered to be the healthiest individuals, are now seeing a rise in NCDs amongst them. This is a Short Term Studentship (STS) Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) selected research project of undergraduate medical student. It was done after institutional ethical clearance and permission from School Principal, assent from students and consent from their parents. This is a school based, cross- sectional study of total 200 school-going adolescents of 15 to 17 years age (100 students, each from private and government coed schools) in Urban Pune. A predefined, pretested AACCI lifestyle questionnaire was explained and given to the students followed by physical examination. The overweight and obese students were advised for further investigations for metabolic syndrome. In private school, the mean BMI was 21.16 for boys and 21.13 for girls while in government school, it was 19.62 for boys and 19.58 for girls. In private school, 3% students were overweight (Girls: 2.22%, Boys: 3.64%), 11% obese (Girls: 6.67%, Boys: 14.55%) and 4% underweight. In government school, 5% were overweight (Girls: 6.12%, Boys: 3.92%), 3% obese (Boys: 5.88%, no girls) and 17% underweight. In Private School, hypertension was in 5.45% boys and 2.17% girls. In government school, hypertension was in 3.64% boys and 2.17% girls. The prevalence of risk factors like overweight and obesity was higher in adolescents from private school than government school. It was more in boys in both schools. A significant correlation was found between lifestyle habits like eating fast food, sedentary lifestyle and non-communicable diseases in adolescents. This is due to change in lifestyle habits.