Abstract
Context: Children in developing countries may survive the critical stage of the first 1000 days of life but may still carry unresolved micronutrient deficiencies into school age. Iron deficiency anaemia is the commonest form of micronutrient deficiency which affects school age children. School feeding programmes may provide an opportunity to reduce the micronutrient deficiencies in the light of limited nutrition interventions that target school age children in developing countries.
Highlights
IntroductionRationaleIn spite of the significant progress in the fight against hunger and malnutrition, the prevalence of malnutrition in the general population still remains unacceptably high with about 795 million people in the world being undernourished [1].Children are not left out of the scourge of malnutrition as 161 million children are stunted; “below minus two standard deviations from median height for age of reference population” and 51 million are wasted, “below minus two standard deviations from median weight for height of reference population” [2].Developing countries are worse hit with under nutrition since 80% of the world’s malnourished children live in just 20 developing countries in Africa, Western Pacific, Middle East and Asia [3].Most nutrition interventions are currently focused on the first 1000 days of a child’s life [4].This is because the period provides a critical opportunity in which interventions to improve maternal and child undernutrition can have a positive impact on the prospects of survival, growth and development among young children especially in countries with a high burden of under nutrition [5].As such pregnant women and children under the age of 2 years
This review has shown that school feeding programmes can have positive impacts on serum ferritin concentrations of primary school children
This review has found school feeding programmes in developing countries to have small positive effects on dietary iron intake leading to a marginal positive impact on haemoglobin concentrations of primary school children
Summary
RationaleIn spite of the significant progress in the fight against hunger and malnutrition, the prevalence of malnutrition in the general population still remains unacceptably high with about 795 million people in the world being undernourished [1].Children are not left out of the scourge of malnutrition as 161 million children are stunted; “below minus two standard deviations from median height for age of reference population” and 51 million are wasted, “below minus two standard deviations from median weight for height of reference population” [2].Developing countries are worse hit with under nutrition since 80% of the world’s malnourished children live in just 20 developing countries in Africa, Western Pacific, Middle East and Asia [3].Most nutrition interventions are currently focused on the first 1000 days of a child’s life [4].This is because the period provides a critical opportunity in which interventions to improve maternal and child undernutrition can have a positive impact on the prospects of survival, growth and development among young children especially in countries with a high burden of under nutrition [5].As such pregnant women and children under the age of 2 years. Most nutrition interventions are currently focused on the first 1000 days of a child’s life [4] This is because the period provides a critical opportunity in which interventions to improve maternal and child undernutrition can have a positive impact on the prospects of survival, growth and development among young children especially in countries with a high burden of under nutrition [5]. As such pregnant women and children under the age of 2 years
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary 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 call
