Issn Print: 0277-2116

Publication Date: 2004/06/01


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O0059 STUNTED GROWTH AND ZINC IN PRIMARY SCHOOL CHILDREN IN EGYPT

M. K. Matter; M. A. Samy; D. I. H. Shehab; S. A. Khairy; H. A. Hassan

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Author Information: Growth and Requirements,

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Introduction: Zinc deficiency causes growth retardation and its frequency is high in developing countries (Siklar et al. 2003).The study was done as a part of national survey to assess the nutritional status of Egyptian school children. A total 750 primary school children were randomly selected to estimate the prevalence of zinc deficiency in urban versus rural areas & to assess its effect on their growth.
Methods: Blood sampling was taken to determine the serum zinc level. Weight-for-age, height-fro-age and weight-for-height were calculated.
Results: The results revealed that children having low serum zinc level were more in rural (19.7% for boys and 18% for girls) than in urban areas (10.7% for boys and 13.2% for girls). There was a statistical significant difference between stunted versus the normal and tall children as regards serum zinc in both urban and rural areas where 100% and 92.6% of stunted compared to 1.6% and 0.9% of normal stature had low serum zinc in urban and rural and respectively. The results also showed that mineral intake especially zinc was greatly affected in both sexes.
Conclusion: It was concluded that zinc deficiency is a health problem in primary school children. This necessitates an intervention programme through appropriate nutrition education and a proper school feeding program for supplementation.
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