AnthropologicAl review • Vol. 79(4), 409–425 (2016) Socio-economic and demographic correlates of stunting among adolescents of Assam, North-east India Melody Seb Rengma 1 , Kaushik Bose 2 , Nitish Mondal 3 1 Department of Anthropology, Dibrugarh University, Dibrugarh, Assam, India 2 Department of Anthropology, Vidyasagar University, Midnapore, West Bengal, India 3 Department of Anthropology, Assam University (Diphu Campus), Karbi Anglong, Assam, India AbstrAct: The prevalence of stunting (low height-for-age) is a key indicator of long-term chronic under- nutrition which relects an anthropometric failure to reach linear growth potentials due to prolonged food deprivation and/or disease or illness during the early stage of life. The present study assesses the prev- alence and socio-economic and demographic correlates of stunting among adolescents of the North-east India. This cross-sectional study was undertaken among 1,818 (830 boys; 988 girls) adolescents (aged 10–18 years) belonging to ethnically heterogeneous populations of Karbi Anglong district of Assam, using stratiied random sampling method. Anthropometric measurements of height and weight were recorded using standard procedures. Socio-economic and demographic variables were obtained using pre-structured schedule. The age-sex speciic L, M and S reference values were used to calculate height-for-age Z-score (HAZ). According to WHO, HAZ found to be <−2SD was classiied as stunting. The data were analysed using descriptive statistics, t-test, ANOVA, chi-square analyses, binary and step-wise multiple logistic re- gression analysis in SPSS (version, 17.0). The prevalence of stunting was observed to be signiicantly higher among boys (48.4%) than girls (37.8%) (p<0.01). Age-sex speciic prevalence was found to be higher among boys than girls aged 14–18 years and contrary were observed among girls aged 10–14 years (p>0.05). The binary logistic regression analysis showed that several socio-economic and demographic variables were signiicantly associated with stunting (p<0.05). The step-wise multiple logistic regression analysis showed that sex (boys), age groups (13–15 years and 16–18 years), father’s occupation (cultivator) and Rupees ≤5000 household income was signiicantly associated with stunting (p<0.05). Appropriate nutritional intervention programmes and dissemination of knowledge at population level related to under- nutrition are necessary to ameliorate their nutritional status. Key words: undernutrition; anthropometry, stunting, public health, nutrition assessment, North-east India Introduction Undernutrition is a major public-health problem increasing the global health bur- den of premature mortality and morbid- ities during childhood. The prevalence of chronic undernutrition and stunting Original Article Received: July 11, 2016; Accepted for publication: November 16, 2016 DOI: 10.1515/anre- 2016-0030 © 2016 Polish Anthropological Society Melody Seb Rengma, Kaushik Bose, Nitish Mondal Unauthenticated Download Date | 12/13/16 11:39 AM