Etat nutritionnel des enfants d'âge scolaire et consommation alimentaire des ménages dans les Zones de Santé urbaine d'Ibanda et rurale de Nyantende au Sud Kivu, RD Congo

Introduction: Nutritional status of children is influenced by dietary. Better dietary diversity helps ensure intake of essential nutrients especially for growing school-aged children. The aim of this study was to assess both the nutritional status of school children in Ibanda and Nyantende health districts, as well as the level of consumption and of dietary diversity score in their household. Methods: in a cluster cross-sectional survey, the present study examined nutritional status, through weight-for-age (WA), height-for-age (HA) and weight-for-height (WH) and dietary diversity score of 750 school children aged 6 to 12 years old. Dietary diversity scores were assessed based on frequency of consumption of individual food items categorized into 7 individual food groups. Dietary diversity was appraised with two types of indices: a dietary diversity score (DDS) based on the number of food categories consumed over a week and a weekly food frequency score (WFFS) which also takes into account the frequency of food intake Dietary diversity scores were assessed based on frequency of consumption of individual food items categorized into 7 individual food groups. Results: Chronic malnutrition is still a public health problem in school-aged children in all studied children, 35.9% of children aged 6 to 12 years were stunted (H/A