Prevalence of daily breakfast intake, iron deficiency anaemia and awareness of being anaemic among Saudi school students

Abstract

Iron deficiency anaemia is one of most prevalent nutritional disorders worldwide. It is known to affect the health and cognitive ability of children and adolescents. Studies in Saudi Arabia concentrate only on the population of young children and pregnant females or girls. Studies on the whole school student population is lacking. The objectives of this study were to identify the nutritional habits and the prevalence of anaemia among school students in Jeddah, as well as to recognize the students' awareness of their anaemic nutritional status. Data were collected from a sample of Saudi school children in Jeddah City from 42 boys' and 42 girls' schools during the month of April 2000. Data collection was done by an in-person interview to collect socio-demographic factors, nutritional habits, weight and height. Haemoglobin was measured in a sample of 800 students selected at random from both genders and different age groups. Anaemia was defined according to the new WHO cut-off levels for haemoglobin as: blood haemoglobin <11.5 g/dl for the 5-11 years boys and girls; <12.0 g/dl for 12-14 years boys and girls; <12.0 g/dl for 15+ girls and <13.0 g/dl for 15+ years boys. Proportion and 95% confidence intervals (CI) were calculated and significance was considered when the 95% CI did not overlap. Anaemia was reported among 20.5% of school students. Anaemia was more prevalent among students of at least 12 years as compared to the younger age group. Also, anaemia was more marked among governmental school attendees and those born to low-educated mothers. Menstruating girls were at around double the risk of being anaemic than non-menstruating girls. Anaemia was associated with negative impact on school performance and was more marked among those who failed their exams as compared to students with excellent results. Skipping breakfast was reported by 14.9% of students and this habit did not differ by age, sex, body mass index or social class. Skipping breakfast was more marked among students with poor school performance as compared to those with very good or excellent results. Only 34.1% of anaemic school students were aware of being anaemic. Awareness was nearly equal in all age groups and social classes but girls were more aware of their anaemic status than boys. Iron deficiency anaemia appears to be prevalent among school students. At age 12 years and over, low social class and menstruating girls constitute the high-risk groups. Screening is recommended for high-risk groups and school health programs are crucial to improve students' nutritional habits, knowledge and awareness.

Prevalence of iron deficiency among schoolchildren of different socio-economic status in urban Turkey

“…SES, either defined by the type of school attended (ie public vs private), by the region of residence (ie rural vs urban) or by the level of parental education (primary school vs University), has been pointed out by many investigators, as an important determinant of the elevated prevalence of iron deficiency and iron deficiency anaemia among the less privileged school-aged children in developing countries (Soekarjo et al, 2001;Abalkhail & Shawky, 2002;Kilinc et al, 2002;Musaiger, 2002;Hashizume et al, 2003). Furthermore, the higher incidence of iron deficiency reported for adolescent schoolgirls, compared to boys (Tatala et al, 1998;Abalkhail & Shawky, 2002;Kilinc et al, 2002;Musaiger, 2002;Hashizume et al, 2004), shows that female gender exerts an extra effect on the prevalence of this medical condition, probably due to accessional iron losses through menstruation. The findings of the current study indicated that both SES and gender might need closer surveillance, in order to better understand the factors associated with the high prevalence of iron deficiency among urban schoolchildren in Turkey.…”

“…Iron deficiency is probably the most prevalent and common micronutrient deficiency in the developing world today (Tatala et al, 1998;Asobayire et al, 2001;Abalkhail & Shawky, 2002;Hashizume et al, 2003). The detrimental public health effects of iron deficiency include anaemia, decreased intellectual and work performance as well as functional alterations of the small bowel (Oski, 1993).…”

Breakfast skipping is associated with differences in meal patterns, macronutrient intakes and overweight among pre-school children

“…The authors have reported elsewhere that 9?8 % of pre-school children from the present study's population in Quebec (Canada) ate breakfast on fewer than 7 days per week and that overweight was positively associated with this behaviour (10) . However, other studies show conflicting results, with some revealing a positive association between breakfast skipping and overweight in populations of school children (11,12) and adolescents (13)(14)(15)(16) , while other studies found no significant relationship between breakfast skipping and increased BMI (17,18) . In fact, a recent review suggested that the results remain inconclusive (19) .…”

Trichuriasis and low-iron status in schoolchildren from Northwest Mexico

“…In 2003, a global prevalence of 28,24,20,19,17,7 and 2% was estimated for East Asia and the Pacific Islands, Sub-Saharan Africa, South Asia, China, India, the Middle East and North Africa, respectively, and 795 million people were suffering from trichuriasis, particularly younger people . Conversely, iron deficiency remains the most prevalent and common micronutrient deficiency in the developing world (Tatala et al, 1998;Asobayire et al, 2001;Abalkhail and Shawky, 2002;Keskin et al, 2005). In 1991, iron deficiency anaemia (IDA) affected 1.3 billion people (Gillespie et al, 1991); in 2003, the figure increased to about 2 billion (Black, 2003).…”