Impact of sickle cell trait on physical growth in tribal children of Mandla district in Madhya Pradesh, India

Abstract

Background: Reliable reports on growth impairment in sickle cell trait (SCT) children in India are lacking despite contradictory findings reported earlier.

Aim: The present study assessed the impact of SCT on physical growth of tribal children of Mandla district.

Subjects and methods: Weight, height, circumferences, breadths, lengths and skinfolds were recorded on 6190 children, inclusive of 732 SCT children, from birth to 12 years of age using a cross-sectional design. The sickle test was conducted in the field using 2% sodium metabisulphite followed by electrophoresis.

Results: No significant difference in mean values was observed in the majority of the age groups between SCT and normal children for all 11 body measurements. However, inconsistent growth patterns in these measurements among SCT children were evident. Body weight was more deficient than height or other body measurements in the children when compared to Indian and National Centre for Health Statistics (NCHS) standards, while bicristal breadth was comparable with Indian standards.

Conclusions: There was no significant impact of SCT observed on growth of children irrespective of sex. Notably, growth of SCT girls was comparable to their normal counterparts. The actual growth difference between normal and SCT children may have been masked on account of poor attainment of annual gain in each successive age group.

Keywords::

• Sickle cell trait
• growth
• India
• children

Acknowledgements

The authors express sincere thanks to the subjects and colleagues for sparing their valuable time as and when required in data collection and analysis. This article has been successfully completed with their support and co-operation. We also express our gratitude to the then Director and present Director Dr Neeru Singh for their constant encouragement, support and financial assistance. We sincerely acknowledge the assistance sought in editing the manuscript from Professor Abha Pandey, Head, Department of English; Government Science College, Jabalpur. The expenditure and other infra structure for this study was met out from institute budget. Thus there is no grant number.

Declaration of interest: The authors report no conflicts of interest. The authors alone are responsible for the content and writing of the paper.