ObjectiveThe study was conducted to determine the prevalence of malnutrition based on anthropometry among primary schoolchildren in Binh Dinh province, Vietnam.Material and MethodsThis was a school-based cross-sectional survey using random sample technique with multistage process. Variables in malnutrition were classifed as thinness, stunting, underweight, overweight, and obesity based on z-scores according to the World Health Organization (WHO) (2007). Anthropometric measurements were taken according to WHO's standard procedures. The Chi-square test was used to compare prevalences and the Chi-square test for trend was employed to assess the trend of the prevalence of malnutrition forms by age.Results6,514 pupils from 6 to 10 years old including 3,298 males and 3,216 females were observed. The prevalence of thinness, stunting, underweight, overweight and obesity among schoolchildren accounted for 11.19%, 6.16%, 10.79%, and 30.1%, respectively. The prevalence of underweight and that of overweight-obesity of all pupils at the age of 6 were 13.1% and 32.11%, respectively, and tended to decrease to age 10 (p < 0.01). The prevalence of thin and stunted pupils had little sign of change over ages (p > 0.05). There was a statistically significant difference in the prevalence of malnutrition in three areas of Binh Dinh (p < 0.05), in which the highest prevalence of undernutrition was in mountainous area and midland, and the highest prevalence of overweight-obesity was in urban areas.ConclusionThe prevalence of malnutrition of primary schoolchildren in Binh Dinh was relatively high, in which the prevalence of overweight-obesity was rather high in urban areas and the prevalence of undernutrition was pretty high in mountainous area and midland. This study has characterized an important public health challenge, highlighting the need for attention to potential interventions.

Objective The study was conducted to estimate the goiter prevalence, and the median urine iodine concentrations among schoolchildren aged 8–10 in Binh Dinh province, Vietnam. Methods A school-based cross-sectional survey was carried out from May 2016 to May 2017. A multistage, proportional-to-population-size sampling method with 30 clusters was used. The children were examined by palpation for the presence or absence of goiter based on the criteria of the World Health Organization (WHO), the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF), International Council for the Control of Iodine Deficiency (ICCIDD); urinary iodine was determined in microplates by a modification of the Sandell-Kolthoff reaction. The Chi-square test was used to compare prevalences, and the Chi-square test for trend was employed to assess the trend of goiter prevalence and urine iodine levels by age and economic-social areas. Results 1800 pupils from 8 to 10 years old including 900 males and 900 females were examined and 300 among them were tested for the urinary iodine concentration (UIC). The prevalence of goiter among schoolchildren was 6.6%. The prevalence of goiter tended to increase in areas with disadvantaged conditions, among which the urban areas occupied the lowest prevalence (5%) while the mountainous areas and Midland took the highest (8.8%) (the p -value of 0.0193). The median UIC of the study group was 159.9 µg/L; the 25 th and 75 th percentile value was 103 µg/L and 230.2 µg/L, respectively. Conclusion According to the WHO/UNICEF/ICCIDD classification, the goiter prevalence indicated that some regions of Binh Dinh province appeared to be slightly affected by iodine deficiency. These have characterized an important public health challenge, highlighting the need to eliminate iodine deficiency disorders in these areas.

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