Nutritional Status of Adolescent School Children in Urban & Rural Area

Nutritional status is defined as the nutritional state of an individual or a population or a community (Osibogun 1998). Attention to nutritional status is especially important in school children as they are undergoing the complex processes of growth and development which are influenced by the genetic makeup of the individual and coexisting medical illness in addition to nutritional status (Maqbool et al.2008). Nutritional status is the balance between the intake and utilization of food nutrients by man in the process of growth and development (Adegunet al. 2013) and according to Goon et al. is an integral component of the overall health of an individual and provides an indicator of the well-being of children living in a particular region (Goon et al. 2011).The national researches done in recent years by The Egyptian National Nutrition Institute and other research centers showed that malnutrition is still a major health problem in different community among different age groups and socio-economic classes (WHO 2010; Emam et al. 2005). School age is the active growing phase of childhood (UNICEF 2004) it represents a dynamic period of physical growth as well as of mental development of the child. Researches indicates that health problems due to miserable nutritional status in school-age children are among the most common causes of low school enrolment high absenteeism early dropout and unsatisfactory classroom performance (Khan et al. 1990) Assessing the nutritional status of groups of children is an essential part of monitoring the health of a community (Rabasa et al. 1998).