STUDIES ON PROTEIN-ENERGY MALNUTRITION AMONG PRE-SCHOOL CHILDREN IN KEBBI STATE (NIGERIA)

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Date
1997
Authors
ALMUSTAFA, DANJUMA ABDULMOMIN
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Abstract
Two thousand five hundred and thirty nine pre-school children randomly selected from urban and rural locations in Kebbi state were assessed for weights, heights, and armcircumference and a sub-sample of 800 hundred were served socio-economic questionnaires and blood samples were collected from 192 of the 800. The major meals eaten by the subjects were sampled and analyzed for proximate composition iron and zinc. The filled questionnaires were analyzed for demographic, socio-economic and nutritional habits while the blood samples were analyzed for PCV, [HB), plasma albumin, globulins and total protein. The results show that the prevalence PEM among the children was very high. Mild wasting was the most prevalent form of malnutrition (34.4% rural; 22.1% urban) whille mild underweight and stunting were about the same in occurence and were about half as prevalent as wasting in both sectors. The prevalence of the severe forms of PEM were relatively low, and ranged from one third to half of the prevalence of the mild forms in the respective sectors. The biochemical assessments revealed that many of the children were also anaemic (17.2% rural; 10.0% urban). The prevalence of hypoalbuminaemia and hypoproteinaemia were 9.7% and 30.3% in rural sector and 3.7% and 24.7% in urban sector. The differences in the prevalence of the various forms of malnutrition between the two sectors was statistically significant ( p<0.05). VIII Analysis of the anthropometric indices compared to the NCHS/WHO standars revealed that the NCHS/WHO standards required only a 5% scaling down for weights and armcircumferences to be suitable for assessing Nigerian children. However the height standards did not require any correction. The major causes of malnutrition among the children in Kebbi state were poverty, large numbers of dependants, illiteracy, frequent infections and above all, poor quality diets.
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A Dissertation submitted to the Postgraduate School Ahmadu Ballo University, Zaria, in partial fulfillment for the degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY BIOCHEMISTRY Department of Biochemistry, Faculty of Science, Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria
Keywords
STUDIES, PROTEIN-ENERGY, MALNUTRITION, PRE-SCHOOL, CHILDREN, KEBBI STATE, NIGERIA
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