The growth of school children from the subcontinent of India living in Leicestershire

Using data from the Leicestershire Growth Study, which was established in 1981, this thesis sets out to evaluate the growth of children in Leicestershire and to highlight any differences which may exist between those children indigenous to Great Britain and those whose families have emigrated from the subcontinent of India. The latter population can be subdivided further, i.e. peoples from the countries of India, Bangladesh and Pakistan, the first group primarily, having either migrated from India directly to this country or having spent an interim period in East Africa, and into adherents of the Muslim, Hindu or Sikh faiths. Seven anthropometric parameters, selected to represent skeletal and soft tissue components of the body, and whose dimensions reflect best the changing patterns of growth with age and environmental factors, were measured on 3775 children aged from 3-10 years inclusive. There are distinct anthropometric differences between the indigenous population and that from the Indian subcontinent, with the indigenous population having greater skeletal dimensions, e.g. stature, head circumference, and differences in body composition, reflected in greater weight. These ethnic differences appear to have been exacerbated by religious factors which impinge upon both genotype and phenotype by imposition of their respective individual cultures:, involving such factors as dietary intake and marriage customs, resulting in the Indian Sikh children resembling more closely the indigenous population than do the Hindus and Muslims. Other environmental factors such as length of time of residence in this country, or period of time spent in East Africa appear to have had some impact upon growth, since the Indians in Leicestershire are taller and heavier than their counterparts still resident in India. Finally, it is recommended that some of the growth charts in current use in Great Britain be modified for use with certain groups of children from the Indian subcontinent.