Efficacy of Protein Supplementation on Malnutrition Indicators Amongst Rural School Children in India

OBJECTIVES: This study was conducted to assess the malnutrition parameters among school children in a rural school near Mumbai, India. A nutritional intervention was carried out by supplementing high protein foods to the midday meal to study its impact on stunting and wasting parameters. METHODS: In January 2020, anthropometric measurements of 60 students from a rural school located in Neral, Maharashtra were taken. The age, height (cm), and weight (kg) of 60 students were recorded and analyzed. In addition to the midday meal, 2 eggs were supplied every day to every student from 1st-5th grade and one egg to students from 6th-8th grade. It was made compulsory that any student who was stunted or wasted, independent of their age/grade, had to have two eggs a day. This was continued routinely from Monday through Saturday and at the end of three months, the same data was collected. RESULTS: The anthropometric measurements of all the students were taken in the month of January 2020 and the beginning of April 2020 (the school was prematurely shut down due to COVID-19 lockdown). In January, after assessing the anthropometric it was concluded that out of 60 children, 19 students were underweight, 9 were stunted, and 14 were wasted. Additionally, 3 were overweight/obese. In April, it was observed that only 12 students were underweight, a 37% decrease in number of underweight students. The was a significant decline in the number of stunted students which went down to 2 students, a 78% decrease. The number of wasted students fell to 11, showing a 21% decrease. The number of obese students fell by 50%, causing the number of overweight students to rise. CONCLUSIONS: The three-month data is considerably encouraging as it shows a significant decrease in the number of wasted undernourished and stunted students in a short period of time. This implies that the high protein diet can be helpful in significantly alter the stunting prevalent in rural school children. Although this study was conducted on a smaller scale, the significant decrease in stunted students consuming two eggs a day shows the effectiveness of protein supplementation. FUNDING SOURCES: School Courtyard Foundation.