Assessment of Nutritional Status of School Age Children (5-12 Years) in Selected Private Primary Schools in Ilaro Metropolis Ogun State. Nigeria.

Abstract

Under nutrition among school age children is a serious public health problem which affects their overall growth and
development. Continuous evaluation of the problem will help in reducing it prevalence. This study assessed the
nutritional status of school age children (5-12years) in selected private primary schools in Ilaro, Ogun state, Nigeria. A multistage random sampling technique was used in selecting two hundred and fifty (250) respondents using a regular interval from the school register. Questionnaire was used to collect data on socio demographic characteristics, anthropometry (Height and Weight) measurement of the respondents were taken using a standard procedure and values obtained was compared with the reference standard and their anthropometric indies were computed using WHO Anthroplus software. Data obtained on socio demographic characteristics were subjected to descriptive statistics using SPSS v20.0.Result reveals that majority of the school aged children are male (51.6%), aged between 10-12 years (56.8%) , majority of the school aged children are from Christian background (78%) and Yoruba (86.7%). Under the class variable, half of the pupils (50.4%) were in primary four and from a monogamous home, 44,8% earns between ₦20- ₦50 as pocket money. The mean height of the male (2.91) respondent was higher than that of female (1.95) respondent while the mean weight of female (31.22) respondent was higher than that of male (30.51) respondents but the difference was not significance (P < 0.05). The nutritional status assessment shows that half of the respondents have normal nutritional status while high prevalence of underweight, stunting and overweight was observed in the rest of the respondents. Conclusively, half of the school age children in private primary school in the Ilaro are suffering from malnutrition.