Prevalence and Associated Factors of Stunting and Thinness Among Children and Adolescents in Nasarawa State: Comparison with World Health Organization Reference

Abstract Background: Nutritional status and growth patterns are key indicators of a population's socioeconomic wellbeing, but data on the prevalence of undernutrition and percentile ranges for height, weight and body mass index (BMI) of children and adolescents in Nigeria are currently lacking. The aim of this study was to find out how common undernutrition is and to generate reference percentile ranges for height, weight and BMI. Methods: Height and weight of 1,541 boys and 1,650 girls aged 5–18 years from Lafia, Nasarawa State Nigeria were measured in 2018 – 2019. The LMS method was used to generate smoothed percentiles of height, weight and BMI-for-age. Classifications into nutritional status was made according to WHO recommendations for stunting and thinness. Results: The proportions of moderately and severely stunted boys were 17.8% and 5.6%, respectively, while the proportions of moderate and severely thinned boys were 52.4% and 27.5%. In girls, the incidence of moderate and severe stunting was 10.9 % and 3.2 %, respectively, whereas the prevalence of moderate and severe thinness was 43.7 % and 18.8 Conclusions: The present study shows that undernutrition is highly prevalent among children and adolescents in Lafia, although the severity of undernutrition is higher in boys than girls. This study offers researchers in Nigeria or other low- and middle-income nations with the most recent age- and sex-standardized percentiles for height, weight, and BMI of children and adolescents in Lafia that may be used for comparison.