Nagpur: While the overall health condition of schoolchildren has been improving over the years, certain health conditions and diseases are becoming visible predominantly in different social economic strata (SES).A study conducted by the Orange City Hospital and Research Institute (OCHRI) on 20,000 schoolchildren from both types of SES has shown that obesity, vision (myopia), dental problems, behavioural changes, allergies are the problems seen more often in high SES, malnourishment, vitamin deficiencies, myopia, poor hygiene, skin rashes and behavioural problems are more common in low SES. Early puberty however was found to be equally common in both groups.Dr Anup Marar, the medical director OCHRI and paediatrician told TOI that the SES were based on the fee structure of the schools. On one hand the study group included high SES schools like various branches of Bhavans’ and Centre Point School it also included Saraswati Vidyalaya and schools of that ranking. “We are doing this exercise since last 22 years and there is a definite increase in awareness and improvement in overall health, there are new health issues like diabetes, obesity, asthma and extreme behavioural changes which are disturbing,” he said.Dr Deepak Dongre, OCHRI medical superintendent says that 25% of the low SES children are malnourished, have vitamin deficiencies and suffer from anaemia as they do not get proper diet due to lack of resources and awareness. However, about 10-20% of the high SES children are obese due to consumption of fast food, over-eating, lack of balanced diet, pampering by parents.Vision problems (myopia or nearsightedness) is common in both groups but due to different reasons. In high SES the percentage is 25% but in low SES it is about 30%. Vision in low SES group is affected 30% more due to addiction to television and smart phones.While problem of poor hygiene is negligible in high SES, in low SES it affects almost 60% of the children. Bad hygiene in low SES children also causes skin rashes and scabies (5-10%) in children. High SES children suffer from allergies mostly due to dust and environment.High SES children suffer from dental caries and tooth decay due to consumption of chocolates, not brushing teeth properly but low SES children were disturbingly found to be consuming tobacco, kharra, panmasala etc besides not brushing teeth.One most disturbing trend common in both groups is behavioural problems. While children in high SES (15-25%) lack required value based education due to neglect of children and lack of awareness and stress children in low SES (30%) are increasingly becoming more violent due to faulty rearing practices of parents, abuse, and lack of awareness in parents.Study team included Dr Kuldeep Sukhdeve, Dr Kishan Ramani, Dr Shweta Jain, Dr Deepika Dongre and their teams.

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