Original Research Article
Year: 2016 | Month: October-December | Volume: 1 | Issue: 4 | Pages: 33-44
Low Anthropometric Indices of Malnutrition in Children of School Canteen Located in Cocody (Abidjan/Cote d’Ivoire)
Jacques Koffi AKPOLE, Mathieu Nahounou BLEYERE, Paul Angoué YAPO
Training and Research Unit of Nature Sciences/ Laboratory of Physiology, Pharmacology and Phytotherapy, Nangui Abrogoua University, 02 BP 801 Abidjan 02, Côte d’Ivoire
Corresponding Author: Mathieu Nahounou BLEYERE
ABSTRACT
Malnutrition continues to always be a health problem despite the decline of poverty in most countries. Furthermore, school children are an attractive target for assessing the impact of school feeding.
In Côte d’Ivoire., scarce are studies that addressed the impact of distributed lunch in canteens on the nutritional status of school children
That study aim was to assess the nutritional status of school children in canteen in comparison with those who do not eat in the canteen according to anthropometric indices.
In total, 402 children from 5-14 years in a public primary school of Cocody (Abidjan) were enrolled following selection criteria for this study including 302 controls and 101 children in canteen. Nutritional anthropometry is the method used for assessing the nutritional status of children with WHO anthroplus software 3.2.2. The treatment was achieved through Excel Window 2010 software and comparing results with Student t test and Mann Withnney test for means values through software Graph Pad 5 and proportions by test G through R 2.0.1 software. The significance level was p < 0.05.
The mean age of our study sample was 8.75 ± 1.92 years (50.62% were boys and 49.38% girls). Within the whole study population wasting (0.74%), underweight (2.23%), stunting or chronic malnutrition of (3.47%), overweight (8.93%) and obesity (5.07%). In school canteen children, we observed no cases of wasting, but 0.99% of underweight, stunting (1.98%), overweight (8.91%) and obesity (3.97%). In control group we noticed wasting (0.99%), underweight (2.65%), stunting (3.97%), overweight (8.94%) and obesity (6.29%).Thinness was more moderate among girls with a ratio of 3.19%. In contrast, overweight was common among girls 5.40% against 2.70% of boys also among school children of 10 years.
Keywords:School Canteen, School Children, Anthropometric Indices, Nutritional Status, Malnutrition, Cocody-Abidjan.