Nutritional status of semi-urban Nigerian school children using the 2007 WHO reference population.

BACKGROUND: There is paucity of data on the nutritional status of school-age children in Sagamu town of Southwestern Nigeria. OBJECTIVE: To determine the nutritional status of primary school children in Sagamu Local Government Area, Nigeria. METHODS: A cross-sectional survey of primary school children aged 6 to 10 years in Sagamu, Southwestern Nigeria was done. Eight schools were selected using a multi-stage sampling technique. Children randomly selected proportionately from the schools were studied. The weight-for-age, height-for-age and BMI of these children were compared with the 2007 WHO reference values to diagnose underweight (WA <-2SD), stunting (HA <-2SD), thinness (BMI <-2SD), overweight (BMI > +1SD) and obesity (BMI > +2SD). RESULTS: A total of 1016 children comprising 479 (47.1%) boys and 537 (52.9%) girls were studied. The prevalence of malnutrition was 401(39.4%) and boys were more malnourished compared to girls (p =0.002). The overall prevalences of underweight, stunting and thinness were 260(25.5%), 144(14.2%) and 226(22.2%) respectively. Overweight and obesity were present in 31(3.0%) and 5(0.5%) of the population studied respectively. Boys were significantly more often underweight and stunted. CONCLUSION: The prevalence of under-nutrition among school children in Sagamu, Nigeria was high and the girls were generally better nourished than the boys. Efforts to reduce the burden of malnutrition in this population may include nutritional surveillance, food supplementation and free school meals.

Growth pattern of schoolchildren in Sagamu, Nigeria using the CDC standards and 2007 WHO standards.

OBJECTIVE: To compare the median weight, height and body mass index of school children with the 2000 CDC and 2007 WHO reference values. SETTINGS: Schoolchildren in Sagamu, Nigeria. DESIGN: Cross-sectional survey. METHODS: Between November and December, 2008, 1690 school children aged 6 to 16 years from 8 primary schools were surveyed using multi-stage sampling methods. The weight, height and body mass index (BMI) were recorded for each child. The Z-scores of the median anthropometric parameters for each age and sex were determined with the LMS statistical method using the values of L, M and S provided on the CDC and WHO charts. RESULTS: The weight, height and BMI Z-scores were less than the reference values provided on the CDC and WHO charts but were generally closer to the WHO standards compared to the CDC standards. The median weight, height and BMI for females generally plotted higher on CDC and WHO chart compared to the males. The prevalence of underweight and stunting were relatively lower while the prevalence of overweight and obesity was relatively higher among children aged 6 to 10 years using the WHO references compared to the CDC reference values. CONCLUSIONS: The WHO references would under-diagnose under-nutrition and over-diagnose overweight/obesity in the population studied.