Nutritional behavior and food security of schoolchildren in primary school

Abstract

Background. The health of a growing and developing child holds a valuable place in the system of general values in the family and country. In recent years, more and more attention has been paid to children’s nutrition considering its programming nature concerning both a child’s health and peculiarities of his/her development. The purpose of the study is to determine the food behavior and nutritional supply of schoolchildren in primary school. Materials and methods. We were monitoring 190 pupils of the 1st — 4th grades in two schools in the city of Lviv. Among them, there were 109 (57.4 %) girls and 81 (42.6 %) boys. All the children were from socially secure, full families. To determine the nutritional value of the diet, parents carefully recorded the child’s diet for 3 days, followed by processing the results in the Dietplan 7 program. Results. A child’s normal appetite is a sign of a child’s health and the absence of symptoms of school maladaptation. In our study, 28.9 % of primary school pupils had appetite disorders, with 23.6 % having reduced or poor appetite and 5.3 % having an excessive appetite. The normal body mass index was determined in 73.7 % of schoolchildren, decreased in 9 %, and increased in 17.3 % of children. Most schoolchildren had an increased daily intake of protein, carbohydrates, calories, saturated fats, and cholesterol, as well as insufficient daily intake of polyunsaturated fats, vitamins (A, E, C, D, B1, B9, B12), and minerals (Ca, Mg, Fe, Cu, Zn, P, J, Se). Conclusions. The modern diet of primary school pupils in Ukraine is unbalanced. It contains excessive amounts of energy, carbohydrates, proteins with a simultaneous deficiency of fats, polyunsaturated fatty acids, micro- and macronutrients, vitamins, which can affect the health of children, their physical and intellectual development, cause problems with learning the curriculum. A significant number of schoolchildren have a combined deficiency of vitamins and minerals. The formation of nutritional deficiencies in pupils is quite diverse and requires an individual approach to the correction of a child’s diet; in some cases, it is also necessary to get a nutritionist consultation and consume several dietary supplements.

Keywords

• schoolchildren, children, health, trace elements, macroelements, vitamins