A study of the nutritional status of 2-5 years old children in an urban Sri Lankan community

Abstract

In Sri Lanka, high prevalence of undemutrition among preschool children is a major public health problem. A range of factors influence their nutritional status. The present study was designed to investigate the relationships between micronutrient status, macronutrient intakes and the nutritional status of preschool children in a Sri Lankan community. In a cross sectional study, 340 children in 2-5 year age group were selected from a community in Ragama MOH area. Anthropornetric data and serum concentrations of vitamin D, intact parathyroid hormone (iPTH), vitamin A, zinc and haemoglobin levels were measured. Dietary intakes of the children were recorded by a seven day fcod diary. The prevalences of underweight, stunting and wasting among the pre-school children were 17%, 7% and 21% respectively. Majority of the children suffered from two or mere coexisting micronutrient deficiencies (92%). but met the requirements of energy (%?) and protein (%?) in diet. Nutritional status had significant associations (p<G.05) with serum vitamin D, haemoglobin level and dietary intakes of protein and energy. Significant correlations (p<0.05) were observed between serum vitamin D and iPTH (r =-0.12) and between haemoglobin and vitamin A (r =0.01), zinc (r =0.02) and vitamin D (r = 0.02). Dietary intakes of vitamin A, vitamin D and zinc correlated (p<0.05) with serum levels of trie respective micronutrient (r=0.24, 0.15 and 0.61 respectively). Dietary iron intake correlated with the Hb levels. Majority of the children in the study sample had normal nutritional status with adequate intakes of protein and energy, but suffered from multiple micronutrient deficiencies. Our data calls for sustainable interventional programmes to reduce multiple micronutrient deficiencies towards optimizing full growth potential among preschool children.