Dietary intake and health status among school children in Puncak Alam / Dzatila Sukma Dewi Azaddin

Dietary intake is the total consumption of the nutrient. It is one of the important factors for growing children. However there are lack of study regarding the dietary intake and health status among the school children. Thus, in this study it will focus on the relation between the dietary intake and health status of the children. The method used in collecting the data is questionnaire and interview. The questionnaire was included with the demographic data, anthropometry data and clinical data. Then, each subject was interviewed to collect the two days 24 hour diet recall. The data collected was analysed using SPSS version 21 and correlation was used to know the relationship of the health status and dietary intake. Based on the result, the subjects were not consuming the recommended nutrient for them. However, they were able to consume enough protein, iron and vitamin C. Based on the results, 7.1 percent of the students are stunted and 48.5 percent of the subject has normal BMI. While only 2.8 percent of the student are having central obesity, 7.2 percent and 20 percent of the subject are having prehypertension and hypertension respectively. Eventhough, the percentage of the subject who experience hypertension, central obesity, underweight, overweight and obese are low but it is still one of the important matter to take into consideration. Based on the result, there are no correlation between dietary intake and each of the health indicator (p>0.05). This is because it is not the dietary intake that influences the health status but the type of food consume. In conclusion, different food will cause different effect on the body eventhough it has the same dietary value.