Assessment of the nutritional status of school-aged children in internally displaced persons' camps in Plateau State, Nigeria

Abstract

Background: Nutritional status is one of the most important public health indicators among the displaced populations. High death rate of children in IDP camps in Nigeria have been attributed to poor nutritional status.

Objective: The study investigated the nutritional status of school-aged children in IDPs' camps in Plateau State.

Methods: The study adopted a cross-sectional survey research design with a population of 948 school-aged children in the two IDPs' camps in Plateau State. Simple random sampling was used to select 474 children who served as sample for the study and forty-seven children as sub-sample for the biochemical analysis. Instruments for data collection were structured questionnaire, microtoise meter, Hanson's bathroom scale and non-stretchable tape. Descriptive statistics such as frequency, percentage, mean and standard deviation were used for data analysis.

Results: Findings showed that there was high prevalence of stunting (74.50%), wasting (61.70%) and 28.1% of the children were underweight. Severe and moderate acute malnutrition were seen in 9.70% and 31.20% of the children respectively. Majority (79.10%) of the children skipped meals especially due unavailability of food to eat. Vitamin A deficiency was seen in 66.00% of the children, 21.30% were iodine deficient, 70.20% were calcium deficient, 40.40% and 70.20% were zinc and iron deficient respectively while 85.10% were anemic.

Conclusion: There was high prevalence of stunting, wasting and underweight amongst the children. The poor nutritional status of the children was attributed to the fact that majority of the children skipped meals especially due to unavailability of food to eat.