Nutritional Status of School Age Children in Private Elementary Schools: Basis for a Proposed Meal Management Plan

Department of Education (DepEd) organizes nutritional programs to improve the health status of children in public schools. Likewise, the researcher believes that health awareness must be raised in private schools as well. This study aimed to affect the community to be aware and more knowledgeable about nutrition. Specifically, this study focused on the nutritional status of school age children in private elementary schools in Santa Rosa, Nueva Ecija. It sought to determine the profile of the learners, anthropometrics, clinical data and the knowledg e of the learners as to dietary and the significant relationship between the profile of the learners and the nutritional status of the school aged children. With all the data gathered a meal management program was proposed. The study employed the quantitative description design. The study manifests that majority of the respondents were not yet aware of what they eat. In addition, age, greatly affects the respondent’s anthropometrics as to height. More so, age, number of siblings and family income, greatly a ffect the respondents’ anthropometrics as to weight. The researcher adopted the Nutritional Guidelines for Filipino program that was developed by the DOSTFNRI. Keywords— Anthropometrics, Nutritional Status, School Age Children.


INTRODUCTION
According to the World Health Organizat ion (2018) Health has become a major issue for most people in the world. Researchers indulge into different experimentation to find cures to illness and diseases. As the world has never been health conscious, proper diet and nutrition become the main focus of the society. Malnutrition contributes to more than 60% of 10 million child deaths each year where 43% of the ch ildren are stunted and 9% are wasted. These global phenomenon resulted to decreased scholastic performance, lo wer IQ levels, poor psychosocial development, decreased cognitive functions and reduced adult size which lead to deteriorating economy.
Nutrit ional problems among children require immed iate action. Malnutrition in a child results fro m interplay of causative agents. The common causes of malnutrit ion are poverty, fau lty food intake, scarcity of food, large family size, lo w level of education, intrafamilial food distribution, urbanization, and more (De Gu zman, 2006) . Apolinar (201) said that epidemiology and ecology of malnutrit ion should be analyzed in order to develop a new source of wealth with the penetration of mass med ia in which has affected the pattern of malnutrition in the young. Nutritionists said that health and adequate nutrition are interrelated to each other. The body needs enough amount of proteins, vitamins and other nutrients to maintain healthy normal gro wth. Since food is of the physiological needs of human, it is his desire to satisfy hunger. On the contrary, people do not get enough o f those nutrients either due to bad eating habits or they cannot afford it. Ho wever, people nowadays start searching alternative ingredients fro m the environ ment to fill in the necessity for food.
Claudio (2007) reiterated that as a child grows, he becomes aware of the relationship of food to a healthy body.
Based on Dimaano's (2007) research, the period of 7 and 12 years is characterized by a slo w steady growth, increased body proportions, enhanced mental capabilit ies, and more motor coordination. The Depart ment of Education (Dep Ed) organizes nutritional programs to improve the health status of children in public schools. Likewise, the researcher believes that health awareness must be raised in private schools as well. This study aimed to affect the community to be aware and more knowledgeable about nutrition.
Specifically, this study focused on the nutritional status of school age children in private elementary schools in Santa Rosa, Nueva Ecija. It sought to determine the profile of the learners, anthropometrics, clinical data and the level of knowledge of the learners as to dietary and the significant relationship between the profile of the learners and the nutritional status of the school aged children. W ith all the data gathered a meal management program was proposed.

II.
METHODOLGY The study employed the quantitative description design. Using the Sloven's formu la, the study involved 180 respondents from the different private elementary schools in one of the municipalities in Nueva Ecija. The main instrument used in this study was a questionnaire. Co mments, revisions and suggestions from the researchers' adviser were incorporated to validate the content of the questionnaire. It was then personally admin istered by the researchers to the respondents after seeking approval fro m the authorities. The data gathering procedure included observation every meal break to obtain facts for the development of the meal management plan. Percentage, weighted mean and Pearson r were emp loyed as statistical tool in the treatment of data.

III.
RESULTS AND DISCUSSIONS Descripti on of the profile of the respondents in terms of age, sex, occupati on of parents, order of bir th, number of siblings and monthly family income. Majority o f the respondents belonged to 10-12 years old, mostly female, whose parents were OFW , and whose family income ranges from P 25,000 and above.
According to the Dietary Gu idelines for Americans (2010), children aged 10-12 need healthy foods because they have a consistent, but slow rate of growth and usually eat four to five t imes a day. Likewise, Dimaano (2016) stated that most girls start to menstruate during this age and were reco mmended allo wances for one or more nutrients. On the contrary, teenage girl's poor diet can be caused by emotional and social pressures. Based on the researchers' observations, parents whose working in professional positions can afford to provide their ch ild ren nutritious food. Hatton and Martin (2008) said that birth order can only affect health outcomes if inequality of resource allocation is present in the household. Furthermore, in the survey conducted by Casey (2001), about 2.2% of households are reported to have food insufficiency. Families with low inco me experience food insufficiency due to lack of money.

Nutri tional status of respondents in terms of anthropometrics as to height and weight of the respondents.
Survey reveals that majority of the respondents stand 51 inches and above and weigh 71 kilos and above. According to Kidshealth Organizat ion (2015), a child's height is determined by genetics or daily nutritional intake. Most kids' growth slows down after the first year o f life breaking down into mini gro wth spurts. To ensure a child reaching a normal height and weight, they must be taught certain lifestyle habits while practicing patience.
Clinical data of the res pondents as to diseases, allergies and operations underwent, and number of vaccines received during infancy up to present.
In terms of diseases, majority of the respondents did not have disease when they were young, 72.2% did not have allergy. About 172 of them did not undergo any operations, while 61.7% had 4 vaccines. Paula (2013) defines clin ical data as the obtaining of indiv idual's med ical history. Vaccines reduce and prevent an indiv idual fro m infectious diseases (Center for Disease Control and Prevention, 2016). The role of parents in educating their children to eat healthy food at an early stage in life can be a big factor in the latter's nutrition. Nowadays, children are engrossed with eat ing too much of processed food and softdrinks. This includes cured meat like hotdogs to be the daily breakfast of every Filipino child. These items are openly sold in school canteens and are often uregulated. Although children are taught in school about proper diet, many factors are to be considered like their utter dislike for vegetables. Cooking this stuff can consume much time, hence the preference of parents for quick-cook food because they are are busy to attend to other household chores. Secondly, the capacity of parents to financially sustain a balanced d iet wh ich they still view the process to be costly.  Table 2 shows that gender had no significant relationship in the anthropometrics of the respondents as to height, parents' occupation, birth o rder, number of siblings , and family income. On the contrary, age greatly affects their anthropometrics.
As individuals age, the body changes and lifestyle may affect d iet and eating habits (Robinson and Segal , 2017).
Moreover, the table shows that weight, gender, parents' occupation and birth order had no significant relationship to the anthropometrics of the respondents. In contrast, age, number of siblings and family income greatly affect the respondent's anthropometrics as to weight. Good nutrition is vital to the growth and development of child ren ( healthypeople.gov., 2006) .  Table 3 implied the significant relationship between the profile and clin ical data as to number of diseases, allergies and operations of the respondents using Pearson's r. It further indicates that there is no significant relationship between the profile and the number of allergies, diseases and operations.  Table 4 indicates that there is no significant relationship between the profile and vaccines received of the respondents using Pearson r. It can be noted that income has significant relationship on the dietary knowledge of respondents. Since family income bracket gathered is considered moderately high by Philippine criteria , they are ab le to buy the food they want, but not necessarily conscious of its dietary contents.The latest Family Inco me and Expenditure Survey ( FIES ) conducted by the Philippine Statistical Authority ( PSA, 2016) found that each Filipino household allots 42.8% of its monthly income to foo d expenses. Proposed intervention program that may employ to improve the health status of the school age children With the result of the investigation made by the researcher on the dietary knowledge and correlat ion of the profile and anthropometrics. The researcher highly recommends the imp lementation in every household and schools the program that was developed by the Food and Nutrit ion Research Institute of Depart ment of Science and Technology the "National Gu idelines for Filip inos 2000". It is a set of d ietary guidelines based on the eating pattern, lifestyle and health status of Filipinos. This consists vegetables, fru its, carbohydrates, proteins, water, and dairy products with suggested amounts. The NGF contains all the nutrition messages to healthy living for all age groups from infants to adults, pregnant, and lactating women and the elderly.

IV.
CONCLUSION Based on the findings , the fo llo wing conclusions were drawn: 1. Majority of the respondents belonged to 10-12 years old, mostly female, whose fathers are OFW, first child in the family, had one sibling, and had a family income ranging from P 25,000 and above. 2. Majority o f the respondents stood 51 inches and above, and weighed 71 kilos and above in terms of anthropometrics. In terms of d iseases, majority of the respondents did not have any disease when they were young, 72.2% d id not have allergy, 172 of them d id not undergo any operations and 61.7% had at least 4 vaccines.

Majority of the respondents answered " Moderately
Agree" in the statements in the Dietary Knowledge which means that the respondents were not yet aware of what they eat. 4. Gender had no significant relat ionship to the anthropometrics of the respondents as to height, both parent's occupation, and birth order, number of siblings, and family inco me. On the contrary, age, greatly affects their anthropometrics. Moreover, weight, gender, parent's occupation and birth order had no significant relat ionship as to weight. In contrast, age, number of siblings and family inco me, greatly affect the respondents' anthropometrics as to weight. 5. A meal management plan is proposed to enhance the nutritional status of children.

V.
RECOMMENDATIONS Based on the conclusions drawn, the following recommendations are hereby offered: 1. Parents may try to control when and where food is eaten by their ch ildren by providing regular daily meal t imes with social interaction and demonstration of healthy eating behaviors. 2. In every household, parents may involve their ch ildren in the selection and preparation of foods, and teach them to make healthy choices by providing opportunities to select foods based on their nutritional value. 3. Most students need to reduce the amount of calories they consume. When it co mes to weight control, calories do count. Controlling portion sizes and eating non -processed foods helps limit calorie intake and increase nutrients.
4. Parents are encouraged to provide recommended serving sizes of food for children. 5. Parents are encouraged to limit children's video, television watching, and computer use to less than two hours daily and replace the sedentary activities with activities that require more movement. 6. Children and adolescents need at least 60 minutes of moderate to vigorous physical activity on most days to have good health and fitness and for healthy weight during growth. 7. To prevent dehydration, encourage children to drink fluid regularly during physical activity and to drink several glasses of water or other fluid after the physical activity is completed. 8. Parents may try to apply organic farming method in their backyard to promote a healthier environment that is free fro m chemicals and will provide cheaper but nutritious foods for their children. A food that is free fro m chemicals will result to a cheaper, nutrit ious and healthy body.