Nutritional Status of Upper Primary School Pupils in a Rural Setting in Ghana (original) (raw)
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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.
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.
At-school lunch provision through the Ghana school-feeding programme (GSFP) is a child survival, health promotion and food security intervention implemented in selected schools in all 216 districts nationwide with the nutrition objective of reducing short-term hunger and malnutrition. The study assessed the impact of the Ghana School Feeding Programme (GSFP) on the nutritional status of participants. School-based cross-sectional survey using multi-stage sampling to select 417 pupils aged 3-12 years enrolled in 14 public basic schools with (n=133) and without (n=304) school feeding programme in the seven sub-districts of the Hohoe municipality, Ghana. Data was collected between January-April 2015 through face-to-face interviews using a semi-structured questionnaire with assistance from teachers/guardians. Weight, height and mid upper-arm circumference were measured and used to generate underweight, stunting, thinness and obesity using WHO Antroplus and STATA 12.1. Mutually-adjusted simple and multinomial logistic regressions were done to determine association between the explanatory and dependent variables. Overall, 15.6% underweight, 9.8% stunting, 4.3% thinness and 5.5% overweight prevalence were observed. Between beneficiary and non-beneficiary pupils, there were no statistically significant differences in underweight (12.4% vs. 16.8%), stunting (13.3% vs. 8.6%), thinness (1.8% vs. 5.3%) and overweight (3.5% vs. 5.6%) respectively. Most of the explanatory variables including provision of schools meals were not significantly associated with the nutritional status indicators. Pupils in lower primary had increase odds for underweight (AOR; 3.0, 95% CI; 1.4-6.6, p=0.006) while those residing in rural areas were five folds more likely to be stunted (AOR; 5.3, 95%CI; 1.3-21.6, p=0.021). Prevalence of malnutrition was lower among beneficiaries but there were no statistical significant differences in anthropometry between schools with and without feeding programme. Findings suggest that the school feeding programme could marginally improve nutritional status of beneficiaries.
EPRA international journal of multidisciplinary research, 2023
Background: The application of anthropometric measurement which entails assessing the nutritional status (stunting, wasting, obesity, overweight, and underweight) of children, is an essential part of monitoring the health of a community. Aim: To investigate and compare the anthropometric indices of nutritional status among public school pupils in rural and urban communities in Warri South LGA. Materials and Method: This comparative cross-sectional study made use of a pretested interviewer-administered questionnaire while the nutritional status of the pupils was obtained using WHO AnthroPlus software. The resulting data were analysed and presented accordingly. Results: The result showed that there were slightly more males (50.9%) than females (49.1%), while urban pupils were younger than their rural counterparts. Also, the mean scores for the weight, WAZ, Height, HAZ and BAZ were 26.67±5.77,-0.96±1.49, 1.32±0.10,-0.43±1.55 and-0.67±1.13 respectively, while there was no statistically significant (p>0.05) relationship between these anthropometric variables and the sex of the pupils. However, urban pupils had a statistically significant (p<0.05) higher weight and height in comparison with their rural counterparts who on the other hand had statistically significant (p<0.05) higher HAZ and BAZ which translates to a higher amount of wasting and stunting among the urban pupils Conclusion: Children in urban primary schools are taller and fatter but more stunted and wasted. Hence, appropriate nutritional education programmes should be initiated for pupils, parents, and teachers, while more efforts should be made to improve the current school feeding program.
Nutrition Journal, 2018
Background: Childhood malnutrition still remains a major public health problem impacting negatively on the academic aptitude of school-aged children (SAC) particularly in limited resource countries. The Government of Ghana in collaboration with the Dutch Government introduced the school feeding programme (SFP) to boost the nutritional status of SAC in the country. This study sought to compare the nutritional status of SAC enrolled in schools with the SFP and SAC enrolled in schools without the SFP in place for the purpose of identifying which group has the higher rate of malnutrition. Methods: A multi-stage sampling was used to select 359 SAC between 5 and 12 years who are enrolled in primary one to six. Twelve public schools were selected, of which 6 schools benefit from the SFP and the other six do not. Anthropometric measurements were conducted for the subjects and SPSS version 20.0 was used for data entry and analysis. Chi square test was carried out to determine the difference between the two groups of schools. Results: Of the total of 359 subjects, 55.1% were from schools that do not implement the SFP and 44.9% were from schools that implement the SFP. The prevalence of stunting among children in schools on the SFP was 16.2% compared with 17.2% among children in schools that do not implement the SFP. The prevalence of thinness was two times higher (9.3%) among children in schools on the SFP than in children in schools that do not implement the SFP (4.6%) (p = 0.028). The prevalence of overweight among children in schools on the SFP was 1.9% and 0.0% for children in schools that do not implement the SFP. Sub district, sex, age of pupil, area of residence and community type were significantly associated with stunting (p = 0.002), (p = 0.008), (p = 0.008), (p < 0.001) and (p = 0.007) respectively. Conclusion: Overweight and thinness were higher among children in schools on SFP than in children in schools without SFP. An evaluation of the implementation of the school feeding programme is recommended for future studies.
Background: Poor feeding practices with its consequence of malnutrition is a serious impediment to child health, growth and development. Thus, periodic assessment of the nutritional status and factors affecting it among this often neglected group remains imperative. Objective: To assess the feeding practices and determinants of the nutritional status of pupils in a public primary school in Aladinma Owerri, Nigeria. Materials and methods: This was a descriptive cross sectional study of 300 pupils of a selected public primary school in Aladinma Owerri, Nigeria. The sampling was done in two stages. Data was collected using a pre-tested semi-structured questionnaire and analysed using statistical package for social sciences version 22.0. Nutritional assessment was done using anthropometric parameters, while Chi-square test was used to identify statistically significant associations between variables. A p value of ≤ 0.05 was considered significant. Results: There were more females 158(52.7%) than males while the mean and median ages were 9.7±0.3 and 10.6±0.3 years respectively. Two hundred and sixty five (88.3%) of them fed at least thrice daily, 92(30.7%) skipped breakfast regularly, while 215(71.7%) had school meals during break period. There were statistically significant associations between Body Mass Index for age (Underweight, Normal and Overweight cum Obese) and [sex (p=0.0121); number of siblings (p=0.013), mothers' educational status (p=0.001) and number of meals per day (p=0.005)] respectively. Conclusions: School's policies and programs that focus on promoting feeding practices and improving childhood nutrition will benefit children.
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.
Science Journal of Public Health, 2013
Malnutrition is one of the major problems facing the developing countries, especially among children. It is estimated that, 28% of children under the age of five are stunted whilst 14% are underweight in Ghana. Minister of Food and Agriculture in 2004 asserted that the Intelligent Quotient (IQ) of Ghanaian children has generally reduced due to poor dietary composition of their food coupled with little attention paid to good nutrition and that the nation is likely to suffer the consequences of unintelligent generation. It is against this background that this study was conducted to assess the nutritional status of Junior High School (JHS) students in the Mfantseman Municipality in the Central Region of Ghana with the objectives of estimating the body mass index (BMI) of the students through anthropometric measurements and use the BMI to determine their nutritional status as well as finding out factors contributing to their nutritional status. The study used purposive, convenient and random sampling techniques to select 7320 school children. Data was collected on the students' age, height and weight. The Body Mass Index (BMI) for age was calculated and compared with the 2007 WHO reference to identify their nutritional status. The study revealed that overall prevalence of malnutrition in the community was high with 25.9% of the children being overweight, 5.5 and 5.8% been lean or severely lean while 39.0% were normal. The incidence of malnutrition was prevalent among boys than girls. The high incidence of malnutrition may be attributed to improper dietary habits, unawareness of balanced diet, poor prenatal nutrition and low family income.
Nutritional Status of Children in Rural setting
IOSR Journal of Dental and Medical Sciences, 2014
Introduction: The fight against Malnutrition may remain for a long time as long as vast population in developing countries remain within the range of poverty coupled with ongoing chaos from political instability in some developing nations. Therefore public health investigation of nutritional status of children is a continuous process that requires several re-assessments especially in volatile environment. Anthropometry is a direct method and the commonest method of assessment of nutritional status in children in these developing nations. Our study therefore assesses the nutritional status of children in rural setting in a developing nation as Nigeria and the influencing factors prevailing for the observed variations; The significant difference between the private and government pupils through their body mass index and other anthropometric parameters. Method: A cross sectional survey of 191 children, aged 6-12 years were selected from local private and government school were used in the study. One of the private schools was randomly selected. The studied variables included; Age, sex of the pupils, religion of their parents, dietary pattern of the pupils and parents socioeconomic status and educational background. Interview of pupils and parents was carried out using prepared questionnaire template. Research ethical clearance from the University, schools head, parent consent were obtained. Weight and height of the children were measured. Anthropometric indices were determined: Weight for height, weight for age, height for age and Body Mass Index (BMI). Data was analyzed using Microsoft excel, SPSS version 16 .The chi-square significance of association was determined at Level of significance less than 0.05. Results: The proportion of male student and female students are 50.8% and 49.2% respectively. A large proportion of fathers were Civil servants (12.6%) while most mothers were farmers (17.3%), the proportion of unemployed fathers 10.47% was more than unemployed mothers. 4.7%.However more mothers that had no formal education (28.8%) than the fathers (9.4%). The proportion of female students (51.7%) who were underweight were more than their male (48.3%) counterparts. The proportion of male students (65%) who were overweight was more than the females (35%). Stunting was more prevalent amongst the males than their female counterparts. Collectively prevalence of stunting was 15.7%, while prevalence of severe stunting was 5.23%. Wasting was more prevalent amongst females 56.3% than males 47.4%. Most of the children diet consisted mainly of carbohydrates (98.4%), while occasionally Protein (92.7%) , Fruit and Vegetable (95.8%). Low socio-economical status, low educational background of parents, cultural norm and low protein diet influences the children's anthropometric parameters negatively and consequently their nutritional status. Other indirect indicators of the nutritional state of the children are the position of the child in the family, the school type attended by the child. Results showed that BMI does not indicate the specific type of under-nutrition compared to weight-height or weight for age. Conclusion: The fight against malnutrition in developing nation by UNICEF therefore should be encourages and supported and public enlightenment campaign should be stepped-up.
Comparative study of nutritional status of urban and rural Nigerian school children
Journal of tropical …, 2007
Nutritional assessment in the community is essential for accurate planning and implementation of intervention programmes to reduce morbidity and mortality associated with under-nutrition. The study was, therefore, carried out to determine and compare the nutritional status of children attending urban and rural public primary schools in Ife Central Local Government Area (ICLGA) of Nigeria. The schools were stratified into urban and rural, and studied schools were selected by balloting. Information obtained on each pupil was entered into a pre-designed proforma. The weight and height were recorded for each pupil, and converted to nutritional indices (weight for age, weight for height, height for age). A total of 749 pupils (366 and 383 children from the rural and urban communities, respectively) were studied. The overall prevalent rates of underweight, wasting and stunting were 61.2, 16.8 and 27.6%, respectively. In the rural area these were 70.5, 17.8 and 35.8%, while in the urban they were 52.2, 15.9 and 19.8%, respectively. The mean nutritional indices (Weight for Age, Weight for Height and Height for Age) were found to be significantly lower among the rural pupils than urban pupils (P < 0.001 in each case). The present study shows that malnutrition (underweight, wasting and stunting) constituted major health problems among school children in Nigeria. This is particularly so in the rural areas. Therefore, prevention of malnutrition should be given a high priority in the implementation of the ongoing primary health care programmes with particular attention paid to the rural population.