Wasting Among School Children and Its Association in Nuwara-Eliya District, Sri Lanka

The prevalence of child wasting is a leading issue of a child’s physical and mental development. Wasting is assessed by measuring the Weight for Height (WFH) Z score. WFH is a measure of acute or short-term exposure to a negative environment and is one of the major three forms of undernutrition. Identifying the different relationships with wasting is important in the attempt to drop the prevalence of wasting to achieve an effective nation through well-nourished children. The objective of this study is to identify the associations between wasting among schoolchildren and different phenomena in Sri Lanka based on the Nuwara-Eliya district. A sample survey was conducted to collect data using a structured questionnaire in this study. Three hundred seventy-eight (378) schoolchildren studying in grade 6 (11 years old) were selected for the study. Multistage stratified random sampling was employed as the sampling technique. Wasting was measured using the Weight for Height (WFH) Z score using SPSS software. A parametric statistical test, the t-test and a non-parametric statistical test, the chi-square test was applied in the study in investigating the relationships. A chi-square test was applied to find out the relationships between wasting and categorical variables. For the relationship between wasting and continuous variables, a t-test was employed. In addition, descriptive statistics were applied in data analysis. A study found that the percentage of children suffering from wasting is 27.5%. The incidence of wasting is more related to low-income families, poverty, mothers working in the private sector, female children, families with more children, young mothers, no-schooling mothers and never married parents because of their higher prevalence of wasting than other groups. Thus, the study suggests an urgent need for more effective policies targeting to decrease the high prevalence of wasting among the children who belonged to these groups.