Department of Community Medicine, Federal Teaching Hospital, Ido-Ekiti, Ekiti State, Nigeria.
Department of Community Medicine, Afe Babalola University, Ado-Ekiti, Ekiti State, Nigeria.
PLoS One. 2024 May 13;19(5):e0303492. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0303492. eCollection 2024.
Nutritional imbalance is an underlying cause of 2.6million death annually and a third of child's death globally. This study assessed and compared the nutritional status of primary school children and their caregiver's knowledge on malnutrition in rural and urban communities of Ekiti State.
This is a cross-sectional comparative study carried out among 983 urban and rural primary school children in Ekiti State (495 in urban and 488 in rural) using interviewer-administered semi-structured questionnaire. A multi-stage sampling technique was used and data collected was analyzed using SPSS 23 with level of statistical significance set at p < 0.05.
Underweight and stunting were relatively higher in rural (6.5% and 22.7% respectively) than in urban (6.3% and 19.4% respectively) and these differences are not statistically significant (p = 0.898, p = 0.197). However, wasting, overweight and obesity were higher in urban (12.7%, 6.1% and 7.7% respectively) than rural (11.5%, 3.7% and 7.5% respectively) but the difference is not statistically significant. (p = 0.242). Majority of the caregivers in both settings had good knowledge of malnutrition though higher in urban mothers (89.5%) with statistical significance than their rural counterparts (71.5%). However, there is no significant association between caregiver's knowledge and malnutrition in this study. Being in lower primary school class, relationship with caregiver, educational status of caregiver and occupation of caregiver were the common predictors of malnutrition among the school children in both community settings.
Generally, the prevalence of malnutrition was high in both urban and rural primary school children in this study. However, while underweight and stunting were more prevalent among the children in the rural communities, wasting, overweight and obesity were more prevalent in the urban. The caregivers in both communities had good knowledge of malnutrition (better in the urban) but this is not good enough to bring a significant relationship with the occurrence of malnutrition in the children. Common predictors of malnutrition in both community settings are being in lower primary school class, relationship with caregiver, educational status of caregiver and occupation of caregiver. It is therefore recommended that regular continuous public enlightenment, nutritional education programmes and other programmes targeted at improving the economic power of the caregivers are measures that will improve the nutritional status of the primary school children.
营养失衡是每年导致 260 万人死亡和全球三分之一儿童死亡的根本原因。本研究评估并比较了埃基蒂州农村和城市社区小学生及其照顾者的营养状况和营养不良知识。
这是一项在埃基蒂州进行的横断面比较研究，共有 983 名城乡小学生（城市 495 名，农村 488 名）接受了访谈者管理的半结构式问卷。采用多阶段抽样技术，使用 SPSS 23 进行数据分析，统计学显著性水平设置为 p < 0.05。
农村地区的消瘦和发育迟缓相对较高（分别为 6.5%和 22.7%），高于城市地区（分别为 6.3%和 19.4%），但差异无统计学意义（p = 0.898，p = 0.197）。然而，城市地区的消瘦、超重和肥胖率较高（分别为 12.7%、6.1%和 7.7%），高于农村地区（分别为 11.5%、3.7%和 7.5%），但差异无统计学意义（p = 0.242）。两个地区的大多数照顾者对营养不良都有很好的认识，尽管城市母亲（89.5%）的认识程度更高，但与农村母亲（71.5%）相比，这一差异具有统计学意义。然而，在这项研究中，照顾者的知识与营养不良之间没有显著的关联。在两个社区环境中，处于较低的小学年级、与照顾者的关系、照顾者的教育程度和照顾者的职业是儿童营养不良的常见预测因素。
总的来说，本研究中城乡小学生的营养不良发生率都很高。然而，虽然农村社区儿童的消瘦和发育迟缓更为普遍，但城市社区儿童的消瘦、超重和肥胖更为普遍。两个社区的照顾者对营养不良都有很好的认识（城市照顾者的认识更好），但这还不足以与儿童营养不良的发生产生显著关系。两个社区营养不良的共同预测因素是处于较低的小学年级、与照顾者的关系、照顾者的教育程度和照顾者的职业。因此，建议定期开展持续的公众启蒙、营养教育计划和其他旨在提高照顾者经济实力的计划，这些措施将改善小学生的营养状况。
