A Tale of Two Woes: Hidden and Overt Hunger in School Children from a Sub-urban Community in South-Eastern Nigeria
Abstract
Anaemia and thinness are indicators of hidden and overt hunger respectively. Yet they are underreported in non-urban dwelling Nigerian children. Two public schools in a sub-urban community in South-Eastern Nigeria were selected for this study. All the children who met the inclusion criteria [total: 176 (52.3% females), age: 5 to 12 years], were recruited and studied. Anaemia and thinness were determined using standard methods and appropriate statistical tools were used for data analysis. The results indicated that 42.0% (10.9% females; 76.1% males; p < 0.001) and 31.8% (32.6% females; 31.0% males; p > 0.05) of the studied children were thin and mildly anaemic respectively - a tale of two woes. Interestingly, only 0.6% of the entire population (0.0% for females; 1.2% for males) were obese and there was no case of severe or moderate anaemia in the population. Both hidden and overt hungers were prevalent to different degrees in the studied population. Nutritional interventions targeting macro- and micro-nutrient sufficiency at household and community levels are advocated.
Downloads
References
Adekanmbi, V. T., Uthman, O. A. and Mudasiru, O. M. (2013). Exploring variations in childhood stunting in Nigeria using league table, control chart and spatial analysis. BMC Public Health 13(1). https://doi.org/10.1186/1471-2458-13-361
Alelign, T., Degarege, A. and Erko, B. (2015). Prevalence and factors associated with undernutrition and anaemia among school children in Durbete Town, Northwest Ethiopia. Archives of Public Health 73(1):1-7.
Benoist, B., de McLean, E., Egll, I. and Cogswell, M. (2008). Worldwide prevalence of anaemia 1993-2005: WHO global database on anaemia. Worldwide Prevalence of Anaemia 1993-2005: WHO Global Database on Anaemia. Retrieved from https://www.cabdirect.org/cabdirect/abstract/20093013528
Ejike, C. E. C. C. (2016). Malnutrition affects the urban-poor disproportionately: A study of Nigerian urban children of different socio-economic statuses. Children 3(4): 17. https://doi.org/10.3390/children3040017
Ejike, C. E. C. C., Onukogu, I. and Onyemairo, J. (2013). Co-existence of child and adolescent obesity and thinness in a city in Nigeria: Comparison of results derived from different reference standards. International Journal of Nutrition, Pharmacology, Neurological Diseases 3(3): 276-281.
Ejike, C. E. C. C., Ugwu, C. E., & Ezeanyika, L. U. S. (2010). Physical growth and nutritional status of a cohort of semi-urban Nigerian adolescents. Pakistan Journal of Nutrition 9(4): 392-397.
Ene-Obong, H., Ibeanu, V., Onuoha, N. and Ejekwu, A. (2012). Prevalence of overweight, obesity, and thinness among urban school-aged children and adolescents in Southern Nigeria. Food and Nutrition Bulletin 33(4): 242-250.
Stevens, G. A., Finucane, M. M., De-Regil, L. M., Paciorek, C. J., Flaxman, S. R., Branca, F., Pena-Rosas, J. P., Bhutta, Z. A. and Ezzati, M.
(Nutritional Impact Model Study Group (Anaemia) (2013). Global, regional, and national trends in haemoglobin concentration and prevalence of total and severe anaemia in children and pregnant and non-pregnant women for 1995-2011: a systematic analysis of population-representative data. Lancet Global Health 1: e16-25.
Jimoh, A. O., Anyiam, J. O. and Yakubu, A. M. (2018). Relationship between child development and nutritional status of under-five Nigerian children. South African Journal of Clinical Nutrition 0658: 1-5.
Melku, M., Takele, W. W., Anlay, D. Z., Ekubagewargies, D. T., Getaneh, Z., Abebe, M. and Abebe, Z. (2018). Male and undernourished children were at high risk of anemia in Ethiopia: A systematic review and meta-analysis. Italian Jo 44:1–11.
Mushtaq, M. U., Gull, S., Khurshid, U., Shahid, U., Shad, M. A. and Siddiqui, A. M. (2011). Prevalence and socio-demographic correlates of stunting and thinness among Pakistani primary school children. BMC Public Health 11(1): 790.
https://doi.org/10.1186/1471-2458-11-790
WHO Multicentre Growth Reference StudyGroup. (2006). WHO Child Growth Standards based on length / height , weight and age. Acta Paediatrica Suppl 450: 76-85.
World Health Organization. (2017). Nutritional Anaemias : Tools for Effective Prevention. WHO, Geneva.
World Health Organization (WHO). (2015). The global prevalence of anaemia in 2011. WHO, Geneva.
Additional Files
Published
License
Copyright (c) 2023 Obike, C. A., Aloh, G. S., Ejike, C. E. E. C.
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.
