Nutritional Status of Children Attending Basic Schools Providing Mid-Day Meal A Comparative Study

Abstract

World Health Organization has stated malnutrition as a condition where there is deficiencies, excesses, or imbalances in an individual's energy and/or nutrient consumption. In Nepal, the government school is mandatory to provide MDM to students up to basic school level. Education system consists of one year of pre-primary to grade 8 known as basic schools. This study aimed to find out the nutritional status of schoolchildren attending basic schools in rural and urban municipalities providing and comparing between those children having midday meal in school with those who are not having. .A cross - sectional, analytical study was designed, multistage sampling techniques were used , where the lottery method was used for the selection of municipalities and schools and simple random sampling technique for the selection of students by using a table of random numbers. A total 276 students were selected of both genders. Data collecting included of anthropometric measurement and structured questionnaire of dietary habit. Among 276 students mean age was 7.76  3.229. MUAC of aged 3-8 years was 14.84  1.35 and BMI of aged above 8 years old was 14.98  2.50. Among them 50.4% were male. 4.3% among 3-5 years group presented with SAM. Age and sex was significantly associated with nutritional status p-value 0.007 and 0.008 respectively. Both parents’ education was associated with Nutritional status of child (p-value 0.001). Children not having MDM in school are more vulnerable of malnutrition (p-value 0.015). MDM is more significant for malnutrition (AOR: 0.364 CI: 0.139- 0.953, p-value 0.41). Nutritional status of those not having MDM in schools are likely to have malnutrition by 1.913times than those having MDM provided by schools (CI: 0.867-4.22, p-value 0.002). The prevalence of malnutrition is significantly associated with parents’ education, consumption of EDNP, and MDM provided by schools.