AN EVALUATION OF ACTUAL AND PERCEIVED WAIST TO HIP RATIO OF VISUALLY AND HEARING IMPAIRED CHILDREN OF KARNATAKA STATE

 Dr. Nagaraja.S., Dr. Gajanana Prabhu B. and Dr. Prakash S.M.

ABSTRACT

India is at present quarters to the world’s largest number of visually impaired people of the thirty seven million people across the world who are visually impaired, over fifteen million are from India. Over the past 20 years, a number of subgroups have been identified as special populations for various purposes. The term special populations take in a wide range of categories, many of which do not truly make up a self-identified group. The reason of the present study was to measure the waist to hip ratio visually and hearing impaired children of Karnataka state. Additionally the level of perception on waist to hip ratio was also correlated with their actual status. The present study was conducted on four hundred and fourteen visually impaired and hearing impaired school going children selected through purposive random sampling technique. The study included visually impaired children two hundred and forty three and hearing impaired one hundred and seventy one male category. All the subjects were residents of special schools within Karnataka state. Their age ranged between thirteen to eighteen years. The waist to hip ratio test was done by following the standard procedure and level of perception on waist to hip ratio of visually and hearing impaired school children was done using a 3 point likert scale.

Keywords: Assessment, Perception, Visually Impaired, hearing Impaired.