The Nutritional Status of Primary School Children in Qua’an-Pan Local Government Area, Plateau State

Nutrition is the fuel that powers an individual and a society at large. Nutrition, if it is given serious attention can also serve as an indicator of the socio-economic wellbeing of a nation. The nutritional status of children is very important as it can lead to deficits in adult life that affect a person’s wellbeing and productivity. This study was carried out to determine the nutritional status of primary school children in Qua’an-Pan LGA, Plateau State, Nigeria. Weight and height of the children were obtained using a bathroom scale and a locally made stadiometer. The age and date of birth of each child was also noted. Hence, the height, weight, date of birth, and date of data collection of each participant was entered into the WHO AnthroPlus software 1.0.4 to obtain Z-scores for the height for age (HAZ) and body mass index (BMI) for age (BAZ). The prevalence of stunting, wasting and overweight/obese was 28.90%, 9.55% and 0.99% respectively. The male children had a significantly higher prevalence of malnutrition than the female children. The high prevalence of malnutrition in Qua’an-Pan Local Government is a worry and it calls for a proper look into the causes of malnutrition among the children and the need to come up with policies and interventions that can help reduce the prevalence of malnutrition among children in the study area.