Introduction: Nutritional status of children is influenced by dietary. Better dietary diversity helps ensure intake of essential nutrients especially for growing school-aged children. The aim of this study was to assess both the nutritional status of school children in Ibanda and Nyantende health districts, as well as the level of consumption and of dietary diversity score in their household.
Methods: in a cluster cross-sectional survey, the present study examined nutritional status, through weight-for-age (WA), height-for-age (HA) and weight-for-height (WH) and dietary diversity score of 750 school children aged 6 to 12 years old. Dietary diversity scores were assessed based on frequency of consumption of individual food items categorized into 7 individual food groups.
Dietary diversity was appraised with two types of indices: a dietary diversity score (DDS) based on the number of food categories consumed over a week and a weekly food frequency score (WFFS) which also takes into account the frequency of food intake
Dietary diversity scores were assessed based on frequency of consumption of individual food items categorized into 7 individual food groups.
Results: Chronic malnutrition is still a public health problem in school-aged children in all studied children, 35.9% of children aged 6 to 12 years were stunted (H/A <- 2ET) of which 16.4% in the severe form (H/A <-3ET); 2.0% were thinner for their height, so they were suffering from acute malnutrition (BMI <-2ET); 5.3% were moderately underweight (thinner for their age (W/A <-2ET).
The stunted growth of the child was related to maternal illiteracy (p <0.05); girls were thinner for their height than boys (p <0.05).
Overall, 7% of households had a food consumption limit and 19.6% had a non-diversified diet. Food consumption and dietary diversity scores were better in urban than in rural areas (p <0.000). Both indices were significantly associated with maternal age and the mother's high level of education (p <0.05).
Conclusion: The prevalence of different types of malnutrition confirms the existence of real public health problems.
Socio-demographic characteristics have significant influence on food consumption and dietary diversity among households in our study field.