Nutritional Status of Children in Rural setting.

Abstract

Introduction: The fight against Malnutrition may remain for a long time as long as vast population in developing countries remain within the range of poverty coupled with on-going chaos from political instability in some developing nations. Therefore public health investigation of nutritional status of children is a continuous process that requires several re-assessments especially in volatile environment. Anthropometry is a direct method and the commonest method of assessment of nutritional status in children in these developing nations. Our study therefore assesses the nutritional status of children in rural setting in a developing nation as Nigeria and the influencing factors prevailing for the observed variations; The significant difference between the private and government pupils through their body mass index and other anthropometric parameters. Method: A cross sectional survey of 191 children, aged 6-12 years were selected from local private and government school were used in the study. One of the private schools was randomly selected. The studied variables included; Age, sex of the pupils, religion of their parents, dietary pattern of the pupils and parents socio-economic status and educational background. Interview of pupils and parents was carried out using prepared questionnaire template. Research ethical clearance from the University, schools head, parent consent were obtained. Weight and height of the children were measured. Anthropometric indices were determined: Weight for height, weight for age, height for age and Body Mass Index (BMI). Data was analyzed using Microsoft excel, SPSS version 16 .The chi-square significance of association was determined at Level of significance less than 0.05. Results: The proportion of male student and female students are 50.8% and 49.2% respectively. A large proportion of fathers were Civil servants (12.6%) while most mothers were farmers (17.3%), the proportion of unemployed fathers 10.47% was more than unemployed mothers. 4.7%.However more mothers that had no formal education (28.8%) than the fathers (9.4%). The proportion of female students (51.7%) who were underweight were more than their male (48.3%) counterparts. The proportion of male students (65%) who were overweight was more than the females (35%). Stunting was more prevalent amongst the males than their female counterparts. Collectively prevalence of stunting was 15.7%, while prevalence of severe stunting was 5.23%. Wasting was more prevalent amongst females 56.3% than males 47.4%. Most of the children diet consisted mainly of carbohydrates (98.4%), while occasionally Protein (92.7%) , Fruit and Vegetable (95.8%). Low socio-economical status, low educational background of parents, cultural norm and low protein diet influences the children’s anthropometric parameters negatively and consequently their nutritional status. Other indirect indicators of the nutritional state of the children are the position of the child in the family, the school type attended by the child. Results showed that BMI does not indicate the specific type of under-nutrition compared to weight-height or weight for age. Conclusion: The fight against malnutrition in developing nation by UNICEF therefore should be encourages and supported and public enlightenment campaign should be stepped –up.