PREVALENCE AND CORRELATES OF MENTAL DISORDERS AND NUTRITIONAL-PROBLEMS AMONG PRIMARY SCHOOL PUPILS IN IDO EKITI, NIGERIA

Abstract

characteristic and nutritional status. Logistic regression was used to determine the predictors of mental health disorders. Level of significance was set at 5%. Results A total of 284 primary school children participated in this study. The mean age of the participants was 8.57±1.65 years. There were 149(52.5%) males and 135(47.5%) females. The prevalence of mental disorders in the sample, based on SDQ abnormality and KSADS-PL diagnostic assessment was 20.4% and 18.8% respectively. Children aged 6-9 years had a prevalence of 7.6% of mental disorders while adolescents aged 10-12 years had a prevalence of 14.0%. The factors found to be significantly associated with DSM-V disorders were: Parent disharmony (p=0.001, x2=17.299), children currently living with a single parent or other relatives (p=0.013, x2=7.917), low level of maternal education (p=0.039, x2=4.282), the high number of mother’s children (≥4) (p=0.031, x2=4.627) and poor academic performance (p=0.009, x2=9.520) were found to be significantly associated with DSM-V disorders. The prevalence of malnutrition was 29.2%. Malnutrition is higher in public school children (35.1%) than among private school children (20.0%). Conclusion Mental health problems and malnutrition were prevalent among school-going primary school children and adolescents. The high prevalence of DSM-V disorders found in the study substantiates the need for scaling up the children and adolescent mental health (CAMH) services for primary schools in Ekiti State and Nigeria. The significant association of mental disorders with poor academic performance is a pointer to increase the awareness of teachers to the fact that mental disorders have a negative effect on the performance of the pupils