Malnutrition and its Correlates among Rural Primary School Children of Fogera District, Northwest Ethiopia

Abstract

Background: Malnutrition is a major public health concern affecting a significant number of school children influencing their health, growth and development, and school academic performance.Objective: To determine the nutritional status of school children in terms of stunting, underweight and thinness and to identify its correlates at Fogera woreda, Northwest Ethiopia, 2012.Methods: Institutional and community based cross sectional study was conducted from June to December, 2012. The study included 790 primary school children who were selected from the source population by multi stage random sampling technique. Data were collected through interview with parents with a standardized and pretested questionnaire; microscope, physical examination and anthropometric measuring and data were entered and analyzed using SPSS version 16.0 and AnthroPlus softwares. Binary and Multivariate logistic regression analyses were used to identify factors associated with malnutrition among school children.Results: Prevalence of malnutrition was high among school children aged six to fourteen years old (mean age 11.4 ± 2.1 years); Study contents include questionnaire surveys, anthropometric measurement, observation and laboratory methods. Finally 790 school-age students took part in study. The results showed that the overall prevalence of stunting, underweight and thinness were 243 (30.7%), 96 (59.7%) and 294 (37.2%). Those children who were found to be both stunted and underweight were only 1.01% (8). Rice consumption, family size, Family radio, infection, vaccination, latrine availability were significantly associated with malnutrition. However, statistically significant association was not found between malnutrition and parasitic infection and other health conditions. Conclusion:In concluding, the study found high prevalence of malnutrition (stunting, thinness and underweight). Vaccination, family planning, latrine construction and utilization, rice production and prevention and early treatment of infection were identified as essential interventions to reduce the risk of malnutrition. Ownership of radio should be promoted to reduce malnutrition. However, parasitic infection among primary school children was not significantly associated with malnutrition. But, school children should be targeted to deworming to treat parasitic infections.

Magnitude and factors associated with malnutrition in children 6–59 months of age in Shinille Woreda, Ethiopian Somali regional state: a cross-sectional study

“…With this regards, children living in a family of five or more were more stunted than their counterparts. The finding corroborates previous studies in Sudan [44], Pakistan [45], Ethiopia [43] and elsewhere [46]. Logically, as family size increases, the chance of becoming malnourished also increase probably due to other factors that may contribute to nutritional status, such as income of the family become less when there is increased family size.…”

“…Similarly, undernourished children from rural Bangladesh [16] and Northwest Ethiopia were less likely to have received vaccination [43]. Non-immunized children are more likely to be frequently infected with vaccine preventable diseases such as diarrhea and respiratory infections, which are known in depleting nutrients from the body.…”

Prevalence of parasitic Infections and its Effect on the Health Status of Primary School Children

“…This result could be due to lack of education of the students' parents as less than half of them were illiterate or read and writeand this lead to lack of knowledge and awareness about parasitic infection among parents and their children. The present result is in accordance with Zakai (2007) (46) , who reported that about two thirds of the studied subject had a below average degree of awareness about parasites and parasitic diseases.Nutrition has become very important in both preventive and curative health care 47) . Concerning the distribution of studied students according to their total Mini Nutritional Assessment Scale (MNAS) score,about two thirds (66.7%, 62.3%) of students infected by one parasite and those infected by two parasites were mal nourished respectively (table 8).…”

Nutrition Intakes and Nutritional Status of School Age Children in Ghana

“…Nairobi, Kenya and 30.7% (Mekonnen, Tadesse, & Kisi, 2013) in Northwest of Ethiopia among school-age children. The differences observed between children from Kenya (Chesire et al, 2008) and present study may be attributed to regional differences: participants in the current study were from semi-rural setting; whereas in the Kenyan study was conducted in peri-urban area.…”