Assessment of Nutritional Status and Cognitive Development of Preschool Children at Minia Governorate, Egypt

Purpose – Improving the health of children under the age of five is one of the main objectives of primary healthcare services in most developing countries. The purpose of this paper is to identify the nutritional status of children under the age of five and its impact on cognitive function. Design/methodology/approach – The cross-sectional study was carried out in a semi-urban community in south-western Nigeria. The sample consisted of 220 school children under the age of five. Anthropometric measurements including weight, height and mid arm circumference were carried out to determine the nutritional status of the children. Cognitive function of the children was assessed using a developmental checklist developed by the American Academy of Pediatrics and their performance was graded as good, fair and poor. Findings – The overall prevalence of malnutrition in this study was low with stunting, underweight and wasting recording 8.2, 6.8 and 1.8 percent, respectively thereby making stunting the most common malnutrition indicator in this study. A large proportion of the children (88.6 percent) had good cognitive performance while 11.4 and 5.5 percent had fair and poor cognitive performance, respectively. Among the various malnutrition indicators measured in this study, stunting was found to have a statistically significant association with cognitive development (p=0.005).Stunted children have multiple functional disadvantages that persist throughout childhood and poor nutrition almost certainly plays a role. This paper calls for a need for the Nigerian Government to intervene by ensuring that policies are implemented that will ensure that health and nutritional needs of preschool children are guaranteed right from conception. Originality/value – In view of the importance of nutrition for cognition in children, this research has shown that the cognitive function of preschool children can be affected by stunting and it has contributed to global data on nutrition and cognition particularly in South-Western Nigeria.

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Reconfiguration Ability of Functional Brain Network in the Cognitive Development of Young Preschool Children

SSRN Electronic Journal ◽

10.2139/ssrn.3195358 ◽

2018 ◽

Author(s):

C. L. Srujana ◽

S. N. Daimi ◽

K. Watanabe ◽

G. Saha ◽

Joydeep Bhattacharya

Keyword(s):

Preschool Children ◽

Cognitive Development ◽

Brain Network ◽

Functional Brain ◽

Functional Brain Network

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Exploring the Potential of a Gamified DEvelopmental Assessment on an E-Platform (DEEP) Tool to Measure Cognitive Development in Rural Indian Preschool Children

SSRN Electronic Journal ◽

10.2139/ssrn.3491938 ◽

2019 ◽

Author(s):

Debarati Mukherjee ◽

Supriya Bhavnani ◽

Akshay Swaminathan ◽

Deepali Verma ◽

Dhanya Parameshwaram ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Preschool Children ◽

Cognitive Development ◽

Developmental Assessment

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Prevalence of Thinness among Santal Preschool Children Using New Body Mass Index Cut-Off Points

Journal of Anthropology ◽

10.1155/2011/602782 ◽

2011 ◽

Vol 2011 ◽

pp. 1-4

Author(s):

Subal Das ◽

Kaushik Bose

Keyword(s):

Body Mass Index ◽

Preschool Children ◽

Nutritional Status ◽

Body Mass ◽

Cross Sectional Study ◽

High Rate ◽

Tribal Community ◽

Community Based ◽

Cross Sectional ◽

Purulia District

A community-based cross-sectional study was undertaken to determine the prevalence of undernutrition using body mass index (BMI) among 2–6-year Santal preschool children of Purulia District, West Bengal, India. A total of 251 (116 boys and 135 girls) children from 12 villages were measured. Commonly used indicators, that is, weight, height, and BMI, were used to evaluate the nutritional status. More boys (59.5%) than girls (53.3%), based on BMI, were undernourished. Significant age differences in weight (F=44.29∗∗∗; df=3), height (F=58.48∗∗∗; df=3), and BMI (F=3.52∗∗∗; df=3) among boys were observed. Similarly, significant differences between ages in mean weight (F=56.27∗∗∗; df=3), height (F=64.76∗∗∗; df=3), and BMI (F=2.62∗∗∗; df=3) were observed among the girls. The present study revealed that the nutritional status of the preschool children of Santal tribal community of these villages was poor with very high rate of thinness in boys and girls (59.5% and 53.3%, resp.).

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