Prevalence and Socio-demographic Determinants of Stunting among School Age Children (SAC) in Gombe State, Nigeria

Background: As one of the key indicators of malnutrition, stunting has been considered to be a very vital proxy for not only chronic nutritional deficit but for long term socioeconomic deprivation among children and the society at large.

Objective: This study was aimed at determining the prevalence of stunting and its association with socio-demographic factors among school children in Gombe state, Nigeria.

Methodology: The study employed a cross sectional survey design to assess school children aged 6 to 15 years in 12 public and 6 private schools from six selected Local Government Areas (LGAs) of the state. Data were collected on a structured pro forma from March to June, 2019. Analysis of the data was done using IBM SPSS version 21 and Chi square statistics was used to compare proportions, while alpha level of significance was set at 0.05.

Results: The mean age of the children was 9.96±2.26 and the overall prevalence of stunting among them was 22.5%. Children in public schools were found to be more stunted (χ2=20.342, df= 1, P=0.000) and more than twice at risk (OR=2.598, CI=1.699-3.974) of stunting than their counterpart in private schools (27.3% vs. 12.6%). Low academic performance was significantly associated with high prevalence of stunting (28.4% vs. 20.9% & 18.0%) among the subjects (χ2 = 7.443, df = 2, p=0.024). Other factors that were associated with stunting include; class of pupil, age group, LGA, tribe, religion, occupation of father, occupation of mother, SES and level of education of mother.

Conclusion: It is quite evident from the findings of this study that stunting is quite prevalent among school children in Gombe state. Hence, it is recommended that a multi-sectoral approach to addressing the problem be instituted by government and all stakeholders.