Investigation of Nutritional Status in Elementary School Students of South Khorasan Province:East of Iran

Background and Objectives Children have greater nutritional needs than adults in order to maintain their growth. It has been determined that about 70% of all malnourished children in the world live in Asia. This study evaluates nutritional status of elementary students in south khorasan province and some effective factors on it. Methods The height and weight of 1303 elementary school students ages between 7 to 12 years old which were selected by multistage random sampling from urban and rural areas of the South Khorasan province were measured. Data for this study was collected for a period of six months from September 2006 to February 2007. Nutritional habits of these students and its relation to demographic factors were evaluated using Gomes (weight – for – age) Maclaren-ride (weight to height for age) and Waterlow (height – for – age) criteria. Results Based on the finding of this study 69.8% of the students were underweight 30.9% were wasted and 43.6% were stunted. The effects of malnutrition in this group were mild and severe cases of malnutrition effects were rare. The adverse effects of malnutrition were more widespread with the increase in the age of the students. These adverse effects were also more persistence with increased level of illiteracy among the parents of these students. The number of underweight students was significantly larger in the rural areas than in the urban areas. Heights of the students were directly correlated to the order of their birth. The higher the birth orders the higher the prevalence of being shorter Being stunted was more widespread among female students with less educated mothers. Conclusion In order to improve high prevalence of malnutrition in elementary school students of South Khorasan province we recommend improvement of the level of literacy nutritional education of mothers and students. We also suggest improvement of quality of students free meal in schools.