Prevalence and associated factors of stunting and thinness among children and adolescents in Nasarawa State: comparison with World Health Organization reference

INTRODUCTION: Nutritional status and growth patterns are key indicators of a population's socioeconomic well-being, 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. This study aimed to determine how common undernutrition is and generate reference percentile ranges for height, weight, and BMI. METHODS: The 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 of nutritional status were made according to World Health Organization (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 moderately and severely thinned boys were 52.4% and 27.5%. In girls, moderate and severe stunting incidence was 10.9% and 3.2%, respectively, whereas moderate and severe thinness prevalence was 43.7% and 18.8%, respectively. CONCLUSION: 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 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.