Children's Nutrition Survey Research Articles

An assessment of the validity and reliability of dental self-report items used in a National Child Nutrition Survey.

To examine the clinical validity and reliability of dental self-report items used in a National Child Nutrition Survey. The study involved completion of dental self-report questionnaires by 6-9-year-old children who attended one of the three schools with ethnic distributions, similar to schools in the national survey, and their care-givers. Children were then dentally examined. Two hundred and four children (response rate 74.2%) returned questionnaires and were dentally examined. The highest degree of child and care-giver concordance for the self-reported dental items was for the "has had an extraction due to dental caries" item (kappa = 0.92), while the lowest was for the "brushes twice or more per day" item (kappa = 0.61). The prevalence of dental caries in the deciduous dentition was 67.6%. The mean dfs, mean DFS and mean number of missing primary teeth because of caries were 6.15 (SD 6.51), 0.83 (SD 1.28) and 0.30 (SD 0.82), respectively. Caries severity was higher in children who reported brushing infrequently, having received a filling, having had an extraction because of caries, having been kept awake at night because of dental pain or having had a general anaesthetic for dental treatment. Values for self-report and clinical reliability were above 0.80 in all instances. The dental self-report items showed a high level of concordance between child and care-giver, and appeared to be clinically valid. The findings suggest that using dental self-report measures for children may be valuable in dental epidemiological investigations.

Nutrition activities in South Africa

South Africa has had a history of racial inequities. The poverty rate in the black population is more than 60%, compared with less than 5% for the Indian and white populations. Poverty is particularly severe in non-urban areas, where the rate is 73.7%. The inequalities in socio-economic status have been mirrored in the nutritional status of South Africans; on the one hand we have stunted, underweight children, while on the other, obese adults at risk for chronic diseases of lifestyle. Much of the previous nutrition research in South Africa concentrated on nutritional diseases of lifestyle of the higher socio-economic groups; however in the new democratic dispensation there has been a move towards research in the area of under-nutrition. In fact, the very first large research study in South Africa’s new democracy (1994) was the first ever, truly representative national nutrition survey of children under the age of six [1]. This survey revealed that stunting was a major problem as was sub-clinical vitamin A deficiency. These disorders were more pronounced in the historically disadvantaged provinces and in rural compared to urban areas. To address nutritional problems in South Africa, the Integrated Nutrition Programme was established by the government in 1996. This program aims to combine direct nutrition interventions, such as nutrition education, micronutrient supplementation and food fortification, with indirect interventions such as health care, provision of safe and clean water, agricultural production and parasite control [2]. The main aims of the program are to: Enable all mothers to exclusively breastfeed their

Child health and nutritional status in Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia: a preliminary assessment.

Over 85% of Mongolia's foreign trade and development aid, which formerly came from the USSR, have abruptly ceased causing shortfalls in almost all sectors. The UNICEF Mongolia Country Program and the East Asia and Pacific Regional Office (UNICEF/EAPRO) realized that Mongolian children are likely to suffer the most as reduced income and food availability aggravate problems associated with malnutrition. Hence, from 16 June-7 July 1992, a team from the Institute of Nutrition at Mahidol University, Thailand, collaborated with local UNICEF personnel and government health officials in designing and initiating the 1992 Mongolian Child Nutrition Survey. This paper presents the preliminary survey data of 342 randomly selected children aged 0-48 months in Ulaanbaatar. Results indicate that the four major health and nutrition problems are protein energy malnutrition (PEM), iodine deficiency disorders, vitamin D deficiency, and an unusually high rate of acute respiratory infections. Also requiring more in-depth study are low birth weight, iron deficiency anemia and vitamin A deficiency.

Child malnutrition in rural Kenya: A geographic and agricultural classification

This article uses data from the 1978–79 Rural Child Nutrition Survey in Kenya, linked to agricultural data on 2,583 households from the Integrated Rural Surveys, to estimate the extent of chronic malnutrition among children in sub‐populations classified by province, occupation, landholding and cropping pattern. Child malnutrition is the worst in Coast and Nyanza Provinces, especially in the families of smallholders. There is some evidence that households growing coffee in Eastern Province are worse off, and households growing drought‐resistant crops better off, than monocrop maize farmers. In the west, smallholders growing new maize varieties have higher rates of chronic malnutrition than those growing traditional varieties.

A nutrition survey of children from one-parent families in Newcastle upon Tyne in 1970.

1. A 7 d total dietary record was kept in 1970 by schoolchildren from one-parent families and by a control sample matched for sex and age who were living with both parents. The children were aged, on average, 14.5 years and were from schools in Newcastle upon Tyne. Medical assessments were made within 2 weeks of the dietary study. 2. Mean daily intakes of food energy and most nutrients were significantly larger (P < 0.05) in the fatherless boys compared with the controls. There was no such difference between the corresponding two groups of girls. The quality of the diet, assessed as nutrients/MJ was similar in all four groups. 3. There was no evidence of undernutrition; a few children were considered to be obese. The findings in a period of relative affluence may serve as a baseline for subsequent dietary studies.