Nutritional Status of Boys Studying in Government and Private Schools- A Comparative Study

Abstract

The purpose of the study was to compare the children studying in government and private schools in respect to their nutritional status. The subjects of the study were school boys studying in classes 6 to 8 and their ages ranged between 11 to 15 years. Body mass index (BMI) was used as a criterion measure to analyse the nutritional status of both the groups. The data was statistically analysed employing appropriate statistical techniques (mean, standard deviation, standard error of means and t-ratio). The t-value obtained was 40.64 which is higher than the table value of 1.96 with 643 degrees of freedom. Analysis of data reveals that a difference of 15.61 in the means of BMI score between government and private schools is statistically significant at 0.05 level of confidence. It was further revealed that 9.0% subjects studying in government schools are undernourished and 91% are average nourished. No subject from government schools was found over nourished and obese. In the private schools no subject is undernourished, 67, 0% are average nourished, 22, 0% are over nourished and 11.0% fall in the category of obese.