ABSTRACT

 The study was carried out to determine nutritional status of school age children (5-10 years) in Uyo, Akwa Ibom State of Nigeria. Two schools were purposively used for the study. A well structured and validated questionnaire was used to elicit information on socioeconomic characteristics, anthropometric, health status, dietary habits and food preference of the pupils. 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) using WHO ANTHRO software. Data were analysed using Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) version 15. A total of 200 pupils comprising 100(50%) male and female children respectively participated in the study. Overall prevalence of stunting, wasting and underweight was 5.4%, 9.6% and 8.1% respectively. In both wasting and underweight, prevalence rates were higher among female children (12.5% and 8.2%) compared to the male children (6.7% and 8.0%), except in stunting where prevalence rate was higher in male children (9.3%) than female children (1.2%). The study revealed a high prevalence of malnutrition (26.8% and 16.0%) among the school age children using body mass index and arm circumference as indices. Prevalence of malnutrition among female children (29.9%) was not significantly higher than male children (27.7%) using BMI as index (X = 0.946; P>0.05), while the prevalence was significantly higher among males (16.5%) than females (15.4%) using MUAC as index (X = 0.043; P<0.05). The health status ofthe children was quite impressive. This was reflected in the high rate of immunized children (91.6%), large number of dewormed children (91.6%), consumption of vitamin and mineral supplement (97.8%) and lesser rate of illness (36.8%). Government as part of effort to reduce the incidence and prevalence of malnutrition (such as stunting, wasting and underweight) should include the promotion of nutrition activities as part of primary health care at health care delivery centers.