Nutritional assessment among primary school children in Basrah city

Abstract EN

Background: Nutritional assessment is the process used to evaluate nutritional status, identify disorders of nutrition, and determine which individuals need nutritional instruction and/or nutritional support.

Objective: The aim of this study was directed to estimate the prevalence of malnutrition in primary school children in Basrah city.

Method: A cross sectional study involving 240 children (107 males and 133 females), drawn from four primary public school in different area of Basrah city.

The data were collected from 26th.

of March to 16th.

of April 2006.

Nutritional status was determined by international cut off points.

Results: Out of the 240 children, 83 (34.6%) were under weight, 13(5.4%) were overweight.

Majority of the children were within normal height 205(85.4%), 22(9.2%) were stunted.

Ninety three (38.8%) were under weight with a BMI less than 5th percentile and the percentage of underweight was higher among boys than girls ( 43.0% & 35.3% respectively ).

Only 17 (7.1%) of the study children were overweight with a BMI between 85th percentile to less than 95th percentile.

Conclusion: The results of this study showed that the majority of children were within normal weight, height and BMI for age and sex, but malnutrition is fairly common