Nutritional status of day and boarding students attending school for special needs in North-central Nigeria

Background: Less information is available on the nutritional status of disabled children in developing countries where the situation is further complicated by widespread malnutrition among the general population. The study assessed and compared the nutritional status between day and boarding students of the school for special needs Ilorin Kwara State.Methods: The study was a descriptive cross-sectional study using quantitative method of data collection from 300 respondents. Nutritional status was assessed using anthropometric measures and Data was analysed using SPSS software version 21.0. Level of significance was pre-determined at p-value < 0.05 at a confidence level of 95%.Results: More than half of the respondents 173 (58%) had normal weight while 127 (42%) were underweight. Female respondents had higher BMI than male respondents. There was a significant relationship between BMI of respondents with age among the boarding students. Many of the boarding students 105 (44.7%) were underweight compared with the day students. The BMI and sex of respondents in both day and boarding schools had no significant relationship.Conclusion: Nutritional status had significant relationship with age, gender, meal frequency and mother's level of education. Day students had better nutritional status compared with the boarding students. Government, parents and caretakers should give more attention on nutritional need of this category of the population.Keywords: Nutrition, status, school, students, need