Abstract
Introduction: Zinc deficiency causes growth retardation and its frequency is high in developing countries (Siklar et al. 2003).The study was done as a part of national survey to assess the nutritional status of Egyptian school children. A total 750 primary school children were randomly selected to estimate the prevalence of zinc deficiency in urban versus rural areas & to assess its effect on their growth. Methods: Blood sampling was taken to determine the serum zinc level. Weight-for-age, height-fro-age and weight-for-height were calculated. Results: The results revealed that children having low serum zinc level were more in rural (19.7% for boys and 18% for girls) than in urban areas (10.7% for boys and 13.2% for girls). There was a statistical significant difference between stunted versus the normal and tall children as regards serum zinc in both urban and rural areas where 100% and 92.6% of stunted compared to 1.6% and 0.9% of normal stature had low serum zinc in urban and rural and respectively. The results also showed that mineral intake especially zinc was greatly affected in both sexes. Conclusion: It was concluded that zinc deficiency is a health problem in primary school children. This necessitates an intervention programme through appropriate nutrition education and a proper school feeding program for supplementation.
Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a callMore From: Journal of Pediatric Gastroenterology and Nutrition
Disclaimer: All third-party content on this website/platform is and will remain the property of their respective owners and is provided on "as is" basis without any warranties, express or implied. Use of third-party content does not indicate any affiliation, sponsorship with or endorsement by them. Any references to third-party content is to identify the corresponding services and shall be considered fair use under The CopyrightLaw.
