Nutritional assessment of children in public and private schools

A lot of studies have been conducted for nutritional evaluation of children under 5 years age due to high under 5 mortality rate of Pakistan. The present study is carried out not only to assess but also to compare the nutritional status of public and private school children of Rawalpindi city. A total of 344 students of 5-10 years age were enrolled in the study from EDO registered schools by multistage sampling. CDC growth charts for 2-20 years age boys and girls showing weight-for-age, height-for-age and BMI-for-age percentiles were used for nutritional assessment. Approximately half of the students were found to be well nourished with higher percentage of study subjects in female population to be malnourished. About more than half of the study population reflected compromised nutritional status with reference to one or more parameters. This grave situation entails needful strategic steps from relevant authorities for its resolution.