Assessment of nutritional status of children attending special needs school in district Peshawar

Abstract

Introduction: Children with special needs are those who have higher possibility of developing conditions that are emotional, physical, behavioral, developmental or chronic in nature. Approximately 80% of the disabled children are present in Low and Middle-Income Countries (LMICs). There are about 41,760 disabled children in Pakistan and in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, there are around 13,290 disabled children. Special needs children face problems including lack of educational opportunities, malnutrition, inadequate access to health care, no tax exemptions or reductions, no disability benefits, limited employment possibilities, social stigmatization or exclusion, and cultural barriers.

Objective: To assess the nutritional status of children enrolled in special needs schools in district Peshawar.

Materials & Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted in December 2023 on disabled children between the ages of 10-17 years attending special needs school of Peshawar using simple random sampling and after informed consent. Data were collected in the form of socio-demographic data and anthropometric measures and analyzed by SPSS version 27 for descriptive and comparative statistics, keeping p≤0.05 as significant. The outcome measure was the Body Mass Index.

Results: There were a total of 300 children with disabilities, with 268(89.33%) male and 32(10.67%) female participants. The findings indicated that 71.67% of the disabled students had healthy BMI and 68.3% had normal MUAC There was also an association between outcome variables (BMI, MUACs) and some of the independent variables (types of disabilities, age).

Conclusion: Majority of the children attending special needs schools of Peshawar have a healthy Body Mass Index and Mid Upper Arm Circumference.