No information exists on the nutritional status of primary school children residing in Makurdi, Nigeria. It is envisaged that the data could serve as baseline data for future studies, as well as inform public health policy. The aim of this study was to assess the prevalence of malnutrition among urban school children in Makurdi, Nigeria.

Objective  To evaluate demographic variation in the prevalence of overweight (OW) and obesity (OB) among 3240 children and adolescents (girls: n = 1714; boys: n = 1526) aged 9–16 years attending primary and secondary schools in Benue State of Nigeria.Methods  Participants’ anthropometric characteristics (body weight, stature, body mass index: BMI and lean body mass: LBM) were determined using standard protocols. OW and OB were estimated using International Obesity task Force diagnostic criteria. Data were analysed with one‐way anova and binary logistic regression method.Results  Overall, 88.5%, 9.7% and 1.8% of the adolescents had normal BMI and were OW and obese, respectively. Prevalence of OW was higher among girls (20.3%) than boys (16.2%), whereas a relatively higher incidence of OB was noted among the boys (3.5%). Girls in urban areas had a significantly higher BMI (t₅₂₄ = 3.61, P = 0.002) than their rural peers, but the rural girls were more significantly OW than their urban counterparts (BMI: t₁₁₈₆ = 2.506). Logistic regression models assessing the influence of age, gender and location on OW/OB in children (α²_{(3, N = 1014)} = 6.185, P = 0.103) and adolescents (α²_{(3, N = 2226)} = 1.435, P = 0.697) did not turn up significant results. In the gender‐specific analysis, the younger boys’ model was also not significant (α²_{(2, N = 488)} = 1.295, P = 0.523) in contrast to the girls’ (α²_{(2, N = 526)} = 15.637, P = 0.0005), thus discriminating between OW and healthy weight among the children. Overall, the model explained 2.9–4.4% of the variance in weight status and correctly classified 76.8% of the cases. Age wise, the model yielded a significant odds ratio of 1.49, suggesting that the likelihood of being OW increases by a factor of 1.5 with a unit increase in age. Also, the likelihood of an urban girl becoming OW or obese was 0.57 times that of a rural girl.Conclusions  In general, girls in urban areas had higher prevalence of OW and OB than girls in rural settings. Among the boys, similar but less marked trends were found, except that the rural boys tended to be more OW on average than their peers in urban areas. In view of its public health significance, it is important to periodically evaluate the prevalence of weight disorders in children and adolescents so that appropriate preventative strategies can be instituted.

Menarcheal age is a sensitive indicator of environmental conditions during childhood. The aim of study is to determine the age at menarche and growth status in adolescents in a rural area of Tarka, Wannune, Nigeria.

Background: The absence of Physical Education (PE) from the South African school curriculum before its reintroduction in recent years contributed to health concerns regarding the low physical activity (PA) levels of children and adolescents in South Africa. Purpose: This study evaluated the effects of a once-a-week enhanced quality PE programme on the PA levels of South African Grade 7 learners. Methods: Using a pre-test and post-test control-group design, 110 Grade 7 learners aged 12–13 years (experimental school, n = 40; control schools, n = 70) from two primary schools in Potchefstroom, South Africa, were studied. They participated in a 12-week PE intervention programme based on the guidelines of the South African Curriculum and Assessment Policy Statement, which allocates one hour per week to PE teaching. The intervention included five quality-enhancing components, namely well-trained teachers, homework activities, a reward system, hand-made apparatus and the monitoring of activity intensity. In the experimental school, 40 learners were randomly assigned from the total Grade 7 class (n = 124) to the experimental group, while two control groups (n = 37 and n = 33) were used, one from the same school as the experimental school and the other from a different school. Additionally, to control for PE teacher interaction effect, the experimental group was divided into 4 experimental sub-groups of 10 learners each, which were taught by 4 different PE teachers, and the pre-test and post-test data of these experimental sub-groups were also analysed. Children's PA levels were measured before and after the intervention using a validated Children's Leisure Activities Study Survey questionnaire. The Kruskal–Wallis and Wilcoxon signed-rank tests were used to evaluate the effects of the intervention programme. Results: No significant differences were found within the experimental group between the 4 experimental sub-groups and between the 2 control groups at pre- and post-test measurements (p > .05). There was a significant effect for the experimental group as a whole, as results of the total experimental group showed statistically significant increases in moderate PA (ES = 0.47; p = .014), vigorous PA (ES = 0.48; p = .012) and total PA (ES = 0.51; p = .008) as well as decreases in sedentary behaviours (ES = 0.39; p = .041) after the 12-week intervention programme, whereas no significant changes were found in the control group. Statistically significant improvements were also found in all 4 experimental sub-groups between pre- and post-tests for the time spent in moderate PA (p = .028–.05; ES = 0.23–0.64), vigorous PA (p = .018–.036; ES = 0.23–0.63), total PA (p = .017–.05; ES = 0.30–0.68) and sedentary time (p = .014–.049; ES = 0.26–0.66), whereas no marked changes were observed among the two control groups, indicating no PE teacher interaction effect on the results. Conclusions: The enhanced quality PE programme can be used as a valuable framework for PE implementation targeted at promoting learners’ PA levels, even in the presence of restricted time allocation, and limited teaching and learning resources.

Differences in motor performance according to chronological age and gender of 341 young Nigerian children (ages 3 to 5) were examined. Motor test items designed by Morris et al. (1981) were administered to the subjects. Analysis of variance was used to determine significant differences in the motor performance of the groups. In the whole sample, more age differences than sex differences in performance were noted. Except for the balancing and running performances of the girls, a fairly linear trend of improvement with age was observed in the motor performances of the groups. At each age level the boys consistently performed better than the girls in four of the six motor tests (catching, standing long jump, tennis ball throw and speed run). Generally, the 4‐ and 5‐year‐old children performed homogeneously, with a great disparity in performance noted for the 3‐year‐old children. The results of this study confirm that age and sex differences in motor performance occur at early childhood. Prospective studies should seek to control the extraneous factors which influence motor development and account for the observed differences in motor performance of pre‐school children.