Assessment of the nutritional status of junior high school students – evidence from Mfantseman municipality of Ghana (original) (raw)
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Nutritional status of school children in the South Tongu District, Ghana
PLOS ONE
Background Malnutrition is a major public health problem because of the devastating consequences it has on children, their families, and society at large. Our study, therefore, sought to determine the prevalence of undernutrition and overweight/obesity and its associated factors among children aged 6–12 in the South Tongu District, Ghana. Methods A school-based cross-sectional study was conducted among 423 school children aged 6–12 years in the South Tongu District of Ghana. A multistage sampling method was employed to recruit the school children for the study. A semi-structured questionnaire was used to collect data from the respondents. We used a dual-purpose (height and weight) measuring scale to obtain the anthropometric data. The World Health Organization’s AnthroPlus software was used to generate the z-scores for determining the nutritional status. Percentages were used to present the results of the prevalence of undernutrition and overweight/obesity among school children. Biv...
Nutritional Status of Upper Primary School Pupils in a Rural Setting in Ghana
International Journal of Nutrition and Food Sciences, 2013
Malnutrition continues to be a major problem among school-aged children in developing countries. In Ghana, there is not much documented data on the nutritional status of this category of children. Thus, this cross-sectional study was conducted to assess the nutritional status of 120 upper primary school pupils, comprising 60 males and 60 females in a rural setting. These pupils were randomly selected from 3 public schools in 3 villages with similar socioeconomic characteristics in the Atwima-Nwabiagya District of the Ashanti region of Ghana. A pretested structured questionnaire was used to collect information on socio-demographic characteristics and food consumption patterns of the pupils while an electronic bathroom scale and microtoise stadiometer were used to obtain their weights and heights, respectively. A 24-hour dietary recall was used to assess the nutrients and energy intakes and the ESHA food processor nutrients database was employed in the analysis of energy and nutrients. To assess stunting and underweight among the respondents, WHO/Epi software was used. T-test and chi-squared statistic were used to analyze differences between variables. The results of the study revealed that almost half of the pupils reported eating three times daily with breakfast and lunch mainly consumed from the school canteen. The 24-hour recall showed that the pupils did not meet their energy and nutrient requirements except for five out of the twelve nutrients investigated. The prevalence of stunting and underweight were 56.7% and 45.8%, respectively, among the respondents. More males than females were either stunted or underweight. However, no significant difference was found between males and females in the incidence of stunting and underweight. The prevalence of thinness also showed that 5% of the males were thin and 13.5% females were overweight/obese. It was concluded that the nutritional status of the respondents was poor since the incidence of stunting and underweight were high while energy and some nutrients were below the recommended intakes. The researchers recommended that there should be more effort in designing intervention programs to improve the quality of meals the pupils consume and also there should be more emphasis on nutrition education at the primary level in rural areas.
BMC Nutrition, 2016
Background: Due to vulnerabilities resulting from disparities in socioeconomic status (SES), most nutrition and health interventions are targeted at children in public schools. This study was conducted to investigate the determinants of malnutrition among pupils attending public and private schools in the Hohoe municipality, Ghana. Methods: School-based cross-sectional survey, which used a multi-stage random sampling technique to select 633 pupils, aged 3-12 years enrolled in 14 public and seven private schools. Data was collected through face-to-face interviews using semi-structured questionnaire. Type of school attended was used as proxy of SES of the pupils. Weight, height and mid upper-arm circumference were measured and used to generate underweight, stunting, thinness and obesity levels using WHO Antroplus and STATA 12.1. Mutually adjusted simple and multinomial logistic regressions were performed to determine associations between explanatory and dependent variables. Results: Underweight (13 % vs. 2 %, p = <0.0001), stunting (12 % vs. 3 %, p = <0.0001) and thinness (8 % vs. 1.4 %, p < 0.0001) were higher among pupils attending public schools compared to their private schools counterparts. Public school pupils had increased likelihood for underweight (AOR = 7.5; 95 % CI = 2.4-23; p = 0.001) and an increase risk for thinness (RR = 4.7; 95 % CI = 1.5-21.2; p = 0.028) but had decrease risk for overweight (RR = 0.3; 95 % CI = 0.1-1; p = 0.043). Overweight (9 %) was higher among private schools pupils compared to public schools (3 %). Underweight (14 % vs. 6 %), stunting (14 % vs. 4 %) and thinness (8 % vs. 4 %) were higher among pupils in rural schools compared to urban dwellers. Rural schools children were twice likely to become stunted (AOR = 2.6; 95 % CI = 1.0-6.4; p = 0.043). However among pupils attending schools in urban areas, the prevalence of overweight was 7 % compare to 1 % in rural areas. Pupils who consumed only two meals per day were more likely to be underweight (AOR = 6.8; 95 % CI = 1.4-32.2; p = 0.016), stunted (AOR = 7.2; 95 % CI = 1.2-43.7; p = 0.033) and thin (RR = 9.4; 95 % CI = 2.0-47.8; p = 0.007) compared to those who had at least three square meals daily. Conclusion: Both under nutrition and over-nutrition were common among the school pupils but overweight appeared largely driven by high SES and urbanization while under nutrition was associated with low SES and rural residency. Interventions targeting school children should aim at reducing poverty and hunger as these factors remain as underlying causes of malnutrition in childhood.
Nutritional Status of School-Age Children in the Nkwanta South District - Volta Region of Ghana
European Scientific Journal, 2014
Background: Childhood malnutrition is still a public health concern affecting both children and adolescents in Ghana. However, school-age children are not always included in national surveys. This study explored the prevalence of malnutrition among school-age children in the Nkwanta South District, of the Volta Region, Ghana. Methods: The study was cross-sectional in design involving school-age children aged 10-19 years in public basic schools in the district. A multistage sampling technique was used to select 650 respondents from schools on feeding programme and schools not on feeding programme. An anthropometric measurement of weight and height was measured by standard methods. Prevalence of overweight, thinness, and stunting was determined by WHO Z-scores criteria and cut offs points for school-age children.EpiInfo version 7 and Stata version 11 were used to enter and analyze data. Results: Three hundred and forty-seven (53.4%) of the sampled students/respondents were females. Respondents had a mean age of 13.4 years. Prevalence of overweight was 6.9%, stunting 50.3% and thinness 19.4%. Prevalence of stunting and thinness was higher among children in schools on feeding programme, while overweight was higher among children in schools not on feeding programme. Area of residence, community type, taboos/beliefs, sex, age, type of school, feeding programme, and some subdistricts were found to be associated with overweight, stunting and thinness. Conclusions: malnutrition rates in this study are higher than national averages for children under five years of age. Interventions such as public awareness and education on child and adolescent nutrition in the district, inclusion of adolescent nutrition in national surveys are recommended.
Anthropometrically determined nutritional status of urban primary schoolchildren in Makurdi, Nigeria
2011
Background: No information exists on the nutritional status of primary school children residing in Makurdi, Nigeria. It is envisaged that the data could serve as baseline data for future studies, as well as inform public health policy. The aim of this study was to assess the prevalence of malnutrition among urban school children in Makurdi, Nigeria. Methods: Height and weight of 2015 (979 boys and 1036 girls), aged 9-12 years, attending public primary school in Makurdi were measured and the body mass index (BMI) calculated. Anthropometric indices of weight-for-age (WA) and height-for-age (HA) were used to estimate the children's nutritional status. The BMI thinness classification was also calculated. Results: Underweight (WAZ < -2) and stunting (HAZ < -2) occurred in 43.4% and 52.7%, respectively. WAZ and HAZ mean scores of the children were -0.91(SD = 0.43) and -0.83 (SD = 0.54), respectively. Boys were more underweight (48.8%) than girls (38.5%), and the difference was statistically significant (p = 0.024; p < 0.05). Conversely, girls tend to be more stunted (56.8%) compared to boys (48.4%) (p = 0.004; p < 0.05). Normal WAZ and HAZ occurred in 54.6% and 44.2% of the children, respectively. Using the 2007 World Health Organisation BMI thinness classification, majority of the children exhibited Grade 1 thinness (77.3%), which was predominant at all ages (9-12 years) in both boys and girls. Gender wise, 79.8% boys and 75.0% girls fall within the Grade I thinness category. Based on the WHO classification, severe malnutrition occurred in 31.3% of the children. Conclusions: There is severe malnutrition among the school children living in Makurdi. Most of the children are underweight, stunted and thinned. As such, providing community education on environmental sanitation and personal hygienic practices, proper child rearing, breast-feeding and weaning practices would possibly reverse the trends.
Asian journal of agriculture and rural development, 2013
The study determined the nutritional status of under five children in Komenda Edina Eguafo Abirem (KEEA) districts in Central region, Ghana. Weight and height measurements for 120 children selected from 4 clusters were taken and survey data collected by structured questionnaire from mothers of the selected children. Prevalence of underweight/severely underweight stunting/severely stunted and wasting/severely wasted was 13.3%, 34.2% and 10.8% respectively. Results also indicated that stunting, wasting and underweight were more prevalent in girls than in boys and in children aged >2-5 years than those <2 years. Wasting only occurred in a small percentage of the boys and girls, and children <2 years. Survey revealed that there is a significant association between nutritional status of children and mothers' age, education, nutrition knowledge and feeding practices. Wald statistics and confidence intervals after adjusting for mother's age, education, occupation, father's occupation and feeding practices showed mothers nutrition knowledge, feeding practices and mothers' education as predictors of children nutrition status. Curbing teenage pregnancy, encouraging girls to pursue education, developing and implementing a comprehensive nutrition education programme for mothers with emphasis on providing quality nutritious and adequate food to children is highly recommended.
International Journal of Nutrition and Food Sciences
This study was to evaluate the impact of nutritional status on the academic performance of pupils from two schools in Yopougon, a town of Abidjan district the largest city in Côte d'Ivoire.For this purpose, anthropometric measures such as weight and height measured in these schoolchildren were allowed to calculate their Body Mass Index (BMI) and to make a classification of BMI obtained according to age and sex. The mathematical scores, text operations and the class average were identified. The values were exploited statistically through SPSS software (version 20). Malnutrition concerns girls and boys. It has allocated 10.13% girls and 10.13% boys. As for overweight or obesity, 0.84% and 5.06% for boys and girls respectively were affected. However, no correlation existed between nutritional status and the various school performances. Thus, forms of malnutrition concerned by our study do not influence school performance.
African Journal of Food, Agriculture, Nutrition and Development, 2015
School-age children in developing countries are particularly vulnerable to undernutrition as the priority of nutritional interventions focus on fetal development and the first years of life. This study examines anthropometric indices of school-age children in five communities located in rural Kwahu-Eastern Region, Ghana, West Africa and discusses environmental influences that contribute to their nutritional and growth status. Anthropometric indices of heights and weights were obtained from 411 school- aged children, (5-12 years old) in 5 villages (Asakraka, Awiseasu, Miaso, Oframase and Oworobong) during June 2012. Anthropometric parameters and influences that contributed to nutritional status (environmental, health facilities, availability of markets and gender) were assessed. Factorial ANOVAs were conducted with age, gender and village as factors for the z-score for ‘BMI-for-age’ and the z-score for ‘height-for-age’. The z-score of ‘BMI-for-age’ showed a significant two-way intera...
Annals of Bioanthropology
The nutritional status of school-aged children impacts their health, cognition, and their educational achievement while poor health and malnutrition impair both the growth and cognitive development of primary school children. This study was carried out to assess the nutritional status and school performance of primary school children in Ogun state, Nigeria. A descriptive cross-sectional survey was conducted among 1200 pupils age 6-12 years old selected from 12 public Primary schools using multi-stage sampling techniques. Interviewer administered questionnaires were used to collect information on the socio-demographic variables of the subjects and also social economic variables of subject parents or guardians. Information on school performance was collected from the Ogun State Unified Examination record record from State Universal Basic Education Board (SUBEB). A 24 hour dietary recall method was used to collect information on the specific food intakes and usual portion sizes. Anthropometric measurements were measured using an electronic food weighing scale and height using a stadiometer. Data collected were subjected to descriptive, t-test and Chisquare statistics. Data on food intake were converted to nutrient intake using Total Diet Assessment software. Body Mass Index for age (BMI-forAge) was calculated from anthropometric data generated using WHO Anthro software. Results shows that the mean and standard deviation age of the respondents were 11.04 ± 1.082 years while the minimum and maximum age was 8 years and 12 years old respectively. The mean weight range of the respondents was, 19.00kg to 70.00kg respectively. The mean height range was, 1.18m to 1.63m. The mean mathematics, English Language, social studied scores was 58.64 ± 13.740, 61.14 ± 14.086, 64.88 ±14.386 while minimum and maximum score were 20% and 99%, 19% and 99%, 18% and 97% respectively. Less than (47.1%) of the respondents have normal nutritional status while 45.80% were underweight, females were more underweight than male while male were overweight and obese than the female. School performance of the Respondents, 70.3% of the respondents had average score in mathematics, 22.3 % performed excellently and 7.4% had poor performance. Over half of the respondents, 69.3% had average score in English language while 26.2% were excellent and 4.6% were poor. 57.8% had average performance, 38.2 % had excellent and 4.0% had poor performances in social studies. Majority of the respondents had inadequate energy intake (83.8%), 2.0% had excess energy intake while 14.3% are adequate energy intake, more than half of respondents (54.3%) Carbohydrate intakes were inadequate while 39.8% had adequate carbohydrate intake and 5.9% had excess intake of carbohydrate. For Protein, 80.0% had inadequate protein intake, 17.3% had adequate protein intake while 2.8 had excess intake. 97.5% of the respondent had inadequate Fat intake while 1.8% had adequate intake and 0.8 had excess intake. 72.7% of the respondents had inadequate intake of Vitamin A, 17.0% had adequate intake, 10.3% had excess intake, for Vitamin C, 99.0% had inadequate intake, 0.8%, had adequate intake, 0.3% had excess, 46.0% had inadequate intake of Folate, 21.5%, had adequate intake, 32.5% had excess intake, for Calcium, 98.8% of the respondents had inadequate intake, 0.8%, had adequate intake, 0.4% had excess intake, 89.0% of the respondents had inadequate of Zinc, 10.5 had adequate intake and 0.5% had excess intake, for Iron 51.0% of the respondents had inadequate intake, 34.3% had adequate intake and 14.8% had excess intake. Significant relationship existed between the Height-forAge , BMI-forAge and school performance of the respondents, as height of the pupils increases there is an increase in their school performance and their body mass index have a positive effect on their school performance which were significant (p ≤ 0.05) except mathematics score.
Malnutrition continues to be a major problem among school-aged children in developing countries. Thus, this cross-sectional study was conducted to assess the nutritional status of 200 public primary school pupils, comprising 84males and 116 females in a rural setting. These pupils were scientifically selected (stratified sampling) from 2 public schools in 2 villages with similar socioeconomic characteristics in the Odeda local government area of Ogun state. A structured questionnaire was used to collect information on socio-demographic and socio economic characteristics of the pupils and their parents. The questionnaire was also used to collect information on the food consumption patterns of the pupils while a bathroom scale and a height meter were used to obtain their weights and heights, respectively. A 24-hour dietary recall was used to assess the food intakes and the ESHA food processor nutrients database was employed in the analysis of energy and nutrients. To assess stunting and underweight among the respondents, WHO Anthro plus software was used. T-test and chi-square statistics were used to analyze differences and associations between variables. The results of the study revealed that more than half of the pupils reported eating three times daily with breakfast and supper mainly consumed at home. The 24-hour recall showed that the pupils did not meet their energy and nutrient requirements except for three out of the seven nutrients investigated. The prevalence of stunting and underweight were 16.5% and 13%, respectively, among the respondents. It was concluded that the nutritional status of the respondents was poor since the incidence of stunting and underweight were high while energy and some nutrients were below the recommended intakes.