Nutritional status of year-1 school girls in the Colombo Municipality

Objectives To estimate prevalence of malnutrition among year-1 school girls in Colombo Municipality. To compare nutritional status of year-1 school girls in 2 grades of schools. To study factors which might influence the nutritional status of year-1 school girls. To identify ways in which mothers received nutritional advice. Design A descriptive cross-sectional study. Setting Schools within Colombo Municipality. Study population 100 year-1 school girls within Colombo Municipality. Method 4 schools were selected by random sampling. Stratified sampling was used to determine the number of students to be chosen from each class. Individual children were selected by systematic sampling. Students chronically ill, those whose parents were absent and those born preterm were excluded. An interview-based questionnaire was used to collect data from mothers. Weights and heights of children were measured. The statistical method used to establish significance was the standard normal deviate (Zscore). A Z-score 0.05); 1.96-2.58 probably significant (p less than 0.05); >2.58 definitely significant (p less than 0,01). Results Overall distribution and separate distribution for each school grade, of heights and weights in year-1 school girls in Colombo Municipality was tabulated and the nutritional status determined. Nutritional status of different grades was compared statistically. Weights of year-1 school girls were grouped as underweight (less than 2SD), normal and overweight (>2SD) and the values tabulated for factors thought to influence nutritional status. Conclusions 16% year-1 school girls in Colombo Municipality were underweight and 2% were stunted. There was no significant difference in the nutritional status of year-1 school girls in grades A and C schools in the Colombo Municipality. None of the factors studied significantly influenced the nutritional status of year-1 school girls in Colombo Municipality. 3 commonest modes of receiving nutritional advice were family health midwife, family practitioner and mass media. Sri Lanka Journal of Child Health, 2002; 31: 82-8 (Key words: Nutritional status, girls, Colombo) Normal 0 false false false EN-US X-NONE X-NONE MicrosoftInternetExplorer4 /* Style Definitions */ table.MsoNormalTable {mso-style-name:"Table Normal"; mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0; mso-tstyle-colband-size:0; mso-style-noshow:yes; mso-style-priority:99; mso-style-qformat:yes; mso-style-parent:""; mso-padding-alt:0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; mso-para-margin:0in; mso-para-margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:11.0pt; font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif"; mso-ascii-font-family:Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-theme-font:minor-fareast; mso-hansi-font-family:Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font:minor-bidi;} doi: 10.4038/sljch.v31i3.770