Nutritional status of tribal and non-tribal school-going children in rural Bangladesh: A comparative study.

Background: Inadequate nutrition of school-going children is a major concern in Bangladesh, and it can negatively affect their productivity. It is important to consider the food pattern, socio-cultural, and economic differences between tribal (T) and non-tribal (NT) communities in Bangladesh when evaluating their nutritional status. This study aimed to investigate the nutritional status of school-going children in the rural area of Rajshahi district's High Barind Tract (HBT) region of Bangladesh. Additionally, we compared the nutritional status between T and NT school-going children in the same area.

Methods: This was a cross sectional household study. Data were collected from T and NT households in the HBT region in the Rajshahi district of Bangladesh, from January to June of 2019. A total of 500 (T 81, NT 419) school-going children aged 6-13 years were selected as samples using mixed sampling, including convenience sampling (non-probability) and simple random sampling (probability) methods. Nutritional status was assessed using body mass index-for-age z-score (BAZ) and height-for-age z-score (HAZ) according to WHO guidelines. Thinness was defined as BAZ < -2SD and stunting as HAZ < -2SD. Descriptive statistics, Z-proportional test, and logistic regression model were used to analyze the effect of selected independent variables on nutritional status of T and NT children.

Results: Among school-going children, 15.20% were suffering from thinness (T 12.30% and NT 15.80%) and 17.80% stunting (T 13.60% and NT 18.60%), respectively. The difference in thinness (p > 0.05) and stunting (p > 0.05) were not significant between T and NT. The distribution of BAZ and HAZ of T and NT children were normally distributed, and were positioned negatively compared to the WHO standards. The logistic model identified the following factors for thinness: (i) mother with non-or-primary education (aOR = 1.89, 95% CI: 1.05-3.43, p < 0.05), (ii) underweight mother (aOR = 3.86, 95% CI: 1.48-10.06, p < 0.01), and (iii) underweight father (aOR = 4.12, 95% CI: 1.50-11.29, p < 0.01). For stunting, the factors were: (i) mother as a housewife (aOR = 2.79, 95% CI: 1.16-6.71, p < 0.05), (ii) father working as labour (aOR = 1.77, 95% CI: 1.01-3.278, p < 0.05), (iii) severe food insecurity in the household (aOR = 2.37, 95% CI: 1.23-4.54, p < 0.05), and (iv) children playing outside regularly more than 2 h (aOR = 2.19, 95% CI: 1.31-3.67, p < 0.01).

Conclusion: In rural Bangladesh, the nutritional status of T and NT school-going children did not show significant defferences. However, the mean z-score values for both groups of children were lower than the WHO standard, indicating that both communities have poor nutritional status.