Prevalence of malnutrition using Z-scores and absolute values in children under five years of age in Utan village, Jos, Plateau State, Nigeria.

OBJECTIVE: To compare the use of Z scores and absolute measurements in determining the prevalence of malnutrition among under-five children in the Plateau State, Nigeria. DESIGN: A community based, cross sectional study of under-five children. SETTING: An urban slum, Utan village, Jos, Plateau State, Nigeria. POPULATION: The village has a projected population of 3,000 people; 15% of whom are under-fives. STUDY POPULATION: Four hundred and twenty six under-five children. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Absolute measures of weight for age, weight for height and height for age; and Z scores for the same indicators. INTERVENTION: Mass chemotherapy (antihelminths) and nutrition education were carried out after the study was done in 1993. RESULTS: Based on absolute measurements, 23.7% of the children had low weight for age; 34.9% of the under-fives were stunted (height for age), while 11.1% had low weight for height. Using Z-scores, 25.3% of the under-fives were malnourished based on weight for age, 37% were stunted (height for age), while 8.7% had low weight for height. CONCLUSION: Stunting is still prevalent in the under-five children surveyed in spite of the siting of the PHC clinic which offers promotive, preventive and curative services. Small scale industry could be set up to empower the women economically so that they can provide enough food for their households. A credit/loan scheme would also be beneficial. Emphasis should be placed on growth monitoring to help the women discover when the weight of their children is faltering. The use of oral rehydration therapy against diarrhoeal diseases and immunisation against the common childhood diseases that also affect the nutritional status of the children is important. Nutrition education and family planning programmes should be effectively organised for mothers.

Incidence and treatment seeking patterns for venereal diseases in Jos metropolis.

This is a cross-sectional survey in Jos metropolis of a sample of hospitals, clinics and other types of western drug dispensing facilities reported to have been patronised by patients seen at the sexually transmitted disease (STD) clinics in Nigeria. Its purpose was to obtain a better picture of the burden of STDs in the towns and villages in the different cultural areas of Nigeria. The results show that all the centres, from patent medicine store keepers upwards, treated STDs. A few of the non-physician manned centres denied treating STD patients. The estimated annual crude incidence rate of STDs in this town, from this study, was 6.8%, similar to the 7.4% estimated for Maiduguri town in an earlier study. Only 0.7% of the cases (compared with 0.8% in Maiduguri) were seen at the specialised STD clinic in the town. The implications of findings for the effective control of STDs in Nigeria are discussed.