Nutritional Status Of Primary School Children Research Articles

Dehulled small millets: The promising nutricereals for improving the nutrition of children.

Good nutrition during a child's early years lays a strong foundation of health for the rest of its life. Yet in India, there is widespread prevalence of undernourishment among children below 5 years of age. Within the Indian context, small millets have great potential as a healthy food to address this challenge by the virtue of their nutritional qualities. However, there are many problems with the current processing technology for small millets, whereas the use of value‐added products was minimal. To address this, an assessment of existing small millet processing machinery was undertaken, and a double chamber centrifugal dehuller was developed, which had higher recovery of dehulled unpolished millets and met requirements at the village and enterprise levels. To demonstrate the health benefits of consuming value‐added small millets, a study of supplementation of multi‐millet health mix on the nutritional status of primary schoolchildren was conducted in Thondamuthur Block of Coimbatore District, India. Multi‐millet health mix was formulated from kodo millet, little millet, foxtail millet, finger millet, and wheat with the inclusion of pulses. It contained 65.45‐g carbohydrate, 11.46‐g protein, 4.94‐g fat, 4.94‐g fibre, 4.07‐mg iron, 112‐mg calcium, 268.52‐mg phosphorus, and 349 calories of energy per 100 g. The study indicated that there was a significant increase in height, weight, and haemoglobin level of the schoolchildren who regularly consumed the formulated multi‐millet health mix. The improved huller and value‐added food product developed can be feasible options for improving nutrition security and livelihoods through increased use of small millets.

Impact of intestinal helminthiases on the nutritional status of primary-school children in Osun state, south–western Nigeria

In January-March 2000, the impact of intestinal helminthiases on the nutritional status of 749 pupils (353 boys and 396 girls) attending public primary schools in the Ife Central local government area of Osun state, in south-western Nigeria, was investigated. Demographic, socio-economic and other relevant information was collected on the pupils, on the same day that a single stool sample was collected from each subject and examined, using Stoll's dilution egg-count technique. The weights, heights and ages of the subjects were recorded and converted to percentages of the reference medians for weight-for-height, weight-for-age and height-for-age. The overall prevalences of helminth infection detected among the 465 malnourished pupils (i.e. those with any form of under-nutrition) and the 284 well-nourished pupils were 32.9% and 25.4%, respectively (P=0.029). The nutritional indices of the pupils who were found helminth-infected were generally lower than those of the pupils who appeared free of intestinal helminths. The mean values for weight-for-height, for example, were higher in the apparently uninfected pupils than in those found infected with any intestinal helminth (P=0.02) or only with Ascaris lumbricoides (P=0.05). Similarly, the mean height-for-age of the pupils who were apparently uninfected was higher than the corresponding value for the pupils found hookworm-positive (P=0.003). The pupils who were each found infected with two or more species of intestinal infection had significantly lower weights-for-heights, weights-for-ages and heights-for-ages than the pupils who appeared to be helminth-free. The results of a multivariate logistic-regression analysis indicated that hookworm infection was a significant risk factor for underweight (P=0.015), wasting (P=0.033) and stunting (P=0.015) whereas Trichuris was only a significant risk factor for stunting (P=0.025). It appears that intestinal helminthiasis may play a causal or contributory role in the occurrence of childhood malnutrition, at least in the present study area. Steps should be taken to control both of these important health problems, through functional school-health programmes that provide regular deworming, supervised school meals and health education.

Nutritional Status of Primary Schoolchildren in Garhwali Himalayan Villages of India

Anemia and micronutrient deficiencies are common among Indian schoolchildren. However, past studies have narrowly focused on only a few micronutrients and have not carefully evaluated the association between sociodemographic factors and nutritional status of schoolchildren. To assess the nutritional status of schoolchildren in Himalayan villages of India and to determine the relationships between their nutritional status, intestinal helminth infection, and sociodemographic characteristics. A random sample of 499 children 6 to 10 years of age from 20 public primary schools was selected. Household sociodemographic data and morbidity data on children were collected through interviews with their caretakers. Height and weight were measured, and venous blood was drawn for assessment of hemoglobin, serum ferritin, soluble transferrin receptor, retinol, zinc, folic acid, vitamin B12, and C-reactive protein. Stool samples were analyzed for parasitic infections. Results. Underweight, stunting, and wasting were present in 60.9%, 56.1%, and 12.2% of schoolchildren, respectively. Anemia, iron-deficiency anemia, and low serum concentrations of ferritin, zinc, retinol, folate, and vitamin B12 were found in 36.7%, 10.2%, 24.1%, 57.1%, 56.1%, 67.9%, and 17.4% of the children, respectively. One-fifth of the children had intestinal parasites. Being underweight was associated with lower household wealth (p < .05). Helminth infection was associated with stunting, anemia, and low serum retinol (p < .05). Living at higher altitude was associated with low serum levels of ferritin, retinol, and vitamin B12. There were no associations between any sociodemographic variables and serum zinc orfolate. Growth impairment and micronutrient deficiencies are prevalent among schoolchildren in Himalayan villages of India.

Energy and Protein Intake and Nutritional Status of Primary Schoolchildren 5 to 10 Years of Age in Schools with and without Feeding Programmes in Nyambene District, Kenya

The dietary intake and nutritional status of 162 children in a school with a lunch programme (the feedingprogramme group) and 163 children in a school without a lunch programme (the no-feeding-programme group) in Nyambene District, Kenya, were compared. The relationship between such child growth determinants as income sources, per capita weekly food expenditure and consumption frequency, per capita energy and protein intake, and the nutritional status of the children was also compared between the two groups. Daily caloric consumption in the group with a feeding programme was significantly higher than in the group without a feeding programme: 1,590 kcal, or 86% of the recommended daily allowance (RDA), versus 1,457 kcal, or 76% of the RDA ( p &lt; .05). The protein intake was mainly of plant origin. Although not significantly different between the two groups, it was higher for children without a feeding programme (62 g; 238% of the RDA) than for those with a feeding programme (56 g; 216% of the RDA). The prevalence of wasting among children with a feeding programme (9%) was significantly higher than among those without a feeding programme (2%) ( p &lt; .05). The level of stunting was about the same in both groups: 24% in the group with a feeding programme and 25% in the group without a feeding programme. There was no significant difference in the prevalence of underweight between the two groups. Overall, the nutritional status of girls was better than that of boys, although the difference was not statistically significant. It is evident that children participating in the feeding programme did not have a nutritional advantage over non-participants. Thus, there is need to evaluate school feeding programmes in Kenya to identify and address the weaknesses that curtail their impact.