Samenvatting

Objective: Child under nutrition is still a big health problem in South Africa. A descriptive study will be done to assess the prevalence of under nutrition of the children, age 7-13 years, at Maxonia primary school in Grabouw, South Africa.
The research is done at the Maxonia primary school in the Grabouw area, South Africa. The measurements took place on the 8th of April, 2014. The research consists out of literature and field research. First literature research is done to determine the cause and consequences of undernutrition and to see which measurements can be done to screen for undernutrition. After that field research is performed to the anthropometric status of the children, for that weight and height are measured and compared with the WHO growth curves for school-aged children and adolescents (WHO,2007). The BMI is used to determine thinness and the height for age to determine stunting. For all the children of ten years and younger also weight-for-age will be used to determine underweight. Also a food security questionnaire is performed on the children of grade five and six, this to determine the risk of hunger. In total 87 children were included for the anthropometric measurements and 31 children for the food insecurity questionnaire.