malnutrition among junior secondary school students in lagos-state, nigeria: a consequence of parental socio-economic condition

the road to good health is through good food which depends on the socio-economic condition of the giver of the food. numerous studies had been conducted on the causes of child malnutrition among children less than 5 years, that of children between 8 and 16 years with keen interest on the socio-economic context of the giver has not been well documented. this lacuna is what this paper filled. cross-sectional household survey was used for the study. 322 respondents were selected using a multi stage cluster sampling design. a well-structured pretested questionnaire was used to elicit the socio-demographic data from the respondents, while the respondents’ nutritional status was calculated using the body mass index (b.m.i) method. chi-square and bivariate logistics regression were used to test the hypotheses. the study discovered that parental education and parental income were the fundamental factors affecting child malnutrition in the study location. hence, government should ensure that education is made compulsory and affordable to everyone. also, the menace of poverty should be adequately addressed.