Assessment of nutritional status of school-going children in district Mardan at Khyber Pakhtunkhwa in Pakistan

Document Type : Case study

Authors

1 Takht Bhai Institute of Health and Management Sciences

2 Abdul Wali Khan University, Mardan

Abstract

Malnutrition contributes directly or indirectly to more than 60% of 10 million child deaths each year. There are many determinants of malnutrition among school-going children. These include poverty, illiteracy amongst parents and environmental factors, diseases, and proper diet. This is an interesting work aimed to analyze the nutritional status of primary and secondary school children in an urban region of Mardan, the second largest city in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KPK). A cross-sectional study was performed in a primary and high school of Govt sector in an urban region of Takht Bhai Mardan. A Total of 1500 children between the ages of 4-15 years were studied. A systematic random sampling technique was applied for sample collection. A total of 1500 children between the ages of 4-15 were analyses for this study. Out of 1500 school going students 600(40%) were found positive and 900(60%) were found normal according to age. Gender wise analysis shows that in male students 210(35%) were found positive for stunting and 150 (25%) male students were underweight. In overall female students 135(22.5%) were found stunting and 105 (17.5%) were found underweight. According to age group wise between 4 to 10 years 90 (10%) female students were found stunting and 60(6.6%)   were found underweight. While in the age of 11 to 15 years 48 (5.3%) students were stunting and 42 (4.6%) students were underweighted. The difference in stunted and underweight showed more boys than girls. In the Pre nursery group more boys were stunted than girls, the ratio being 70%:30%, on the contrary underweight was more in boys than in girls, with the ratio of 57%:43%. In the Primary section both stunting and underweight were more in boys as compared to the girls. The ratios were 54.8%:45.2% and 82.9%:17% respectively.

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