CONTENTS OF LUNCH BOXES OF PRIMARY SCHOOL PUPILS IN IBADAN NORTH EAST LOCAL GOVERNMENT AREA OF OYO STATE

Abstract

Content of lunch boxes of primary school pupils is a major contributing factor to malnutrition which is an increasing problem in Nigeria. Daily packed lunch box provides valuable content to a child’s nutritional requirement. Despite the fact that children often skip meals thereby increasing their susceptibility to malnutrition, usage and content of their lunch packs have not been fully investigated. Although, researches have been carried out on nutritional content of lunch boxes of primary school children in developed countries, few have been done in developing countries. This study was designed to investigate the content of lunch boxes of primary school children in Ibadan North East Local Government Area of Oyo state. This study was carried out using a descriptive cross-sectional design. A three-stage sampling method was employed using a sample of 298 pupils. A validated semi-structured questionnaire was used for data collection from private and public primary school pupils in the LGA which addressed the following: socio-demographic characteristics, availability of packed lunch and lunch boxes, content of foods packed in the lunch boxes, sources of mid day meals for pupils without lunch boxes and perception of pupils about packed lunch. The data were analyzed using descriptive and inferential statistics such as chi-square, regression analysis at p=0.05. Respondents ’mean age was 9.4 ± 2.0 years, with highest respondents from primary 5 (31.95%) Majority (80.2%) of the respondents had a lunch box on visit to their schools and 53.4% of them had snack in their lunch box on observation. Respondents made use of lunch box/bag (56.1%), lunch basket (29.5%) and party/polythene bag (14.2%). Contents of the lunch boxes of respondents includes water (94.6%), grains (76.2%), meat or poultry or fish (59.4%), pastries (45.6%), legumes (27.2%), sweetened drinks (22.2%), vegetables (21.0%), root and tubers (18.8%), sugar, syrups and sweet (13.8%). Sources of mid-day meal for pupils without lunch boxes were food canteen (39.3%), tuck shop (36.2%) and food vendors (21.1%) while 5.3%do not have a mid-day meal at all. Food usually bought by respondents included pastries (30.4%), rice (35.7%), sweetened drinks (53.6%), milk and related products (25.0%). Almost half of the respondent (48.7%) had a positive perception towards lunch boxes. The esult showed that private schools pupils were 1.9 times more likely to have pastries and sweetened drinks compared to those in public schools (OR-1.914). A large number of the respondents had lunch boxes, grains and water were found in majority of the boxes. It was also observed that pupils without packed lunch consumed more of pastries and sweetened drinks. Multiple interventions such as training, public enlightenment and policy intervention are to be targeted at the pupils, parent and teachers to address the perception of the pupils and improve the contents of lunch boxes.