BODY MASS INDEX IN THALASSEMIA CHILDREN
Journal Title: Journal of Evolution of Medical and Dental Sciences - Year 2019, Vol 8, Issue 19
Abstract
BACKGROUND Thalassemia is more common in populations in the geographic belt from south east Asia to Africa and it is more common in an around Dibrugarh District of Assam, India. Most of the time, children present with either anaemia or failure to thrive especially seen in children belonging to tea garden area. Along with other laboratory parameters, anthropometric measurements are important especially BMI to see the status of the growth pattern. Quetlet index also known as BMI has been in use to study the growth parameters since a long time and is still being used. We wanted to study the Body Mass Index (BMI) in children with thalassemia major to determine the status of malnutrition in thalassemia, who were on regular blood transfusion therapy. METHODS 50 beta thalassemia major patients, 5-15 years of age, were examined for body mass index in a tertiary care centre. They were on regular blood transfusion. This is a hospital based observational study in the Department of Paediatrics, Assam Medical College, Dibrugarh, Assam, India. RESULTS BMI was found to be reduced in patients of thalassemia major who were more than 10 years of age (70.4% of patients) as compared to patients of less than 10 years of age (30.4% of patients). However, the variation of BMI between girls and boys was not significant, but the differences begin to appear when thalassemia is running for a longer period of time. Whether regular blood transfusion therapy/other medical problems/nutritional problems lead to the differences needs to be studied. BMI was normal in most of the cases of below 10 years age group either because of not attaining adolescent period yet, or may be because of regular blood transfusions for a short period of time, as compared to children of more than 10 years of age. CONCLUSIONS Thalassemia major has a significant impact on growth process of children and hence early intervention is needed and further studies may help us determine as to whether BMI impact is because of disease itself or due to something else.
Authors and Affiliations
Pranoy Dey, Gitashree Konwar, Bikash Sarkar
Keywords
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- EP ID EP617272
- DOI 10.14260/jemds/2019/341
- Views 72
- Downloads 0
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