Some Palestinian kids malnourished: Lancet CBC NEWS

About 11 per cent were Palestinian children studied were anemic. Here students line up on the first day of elementary school reopening in the Rafah refugee camp southern Gaza Strip in January 2009. (Eyad Baba/Associated Press)

About one in four Palestinian children goes without breakfast, say researchers who found many had stunted growth or malnourished.

July 2, 2010: About one in four Palestinian children goes without breakfast, say researchers who found many had stunted growth or malnourished.

Medical journal the Lancet published a series of abstracts and commentaries Friday on health issues in the Palestinian territories.

In one study, Kholoud Nasser from the Ministry of Education in Ramallah, looked at the diet of 2,000 Palestinians aged nine to 11 and 14 to 16 in the West Bank and Gaza in March 2008.

Weight and height were measured, and hemoglobin concentrations were measured to assess the degree of iron-deficiency anemia. Children were interviewed about their knowledge, attitudes and practices, and the teens filled in questionnaires.

The results suggested 26 per cent of children did not eat breakfast, the main indicator of healthy eating habits.

About 11 per cent were anemic, and one in 17 stunted or low in height for age the Lancet reported

The higher prevalence of anemia in girls (14 per cent) than boys (7 per cent) could be associated with menstruation that is not compensated for by diet, the study's authors suggested.

More boys were stunted (eight per cent in boys compared with three per cent of girls), either because of late onset of puberty or poor health since early childhood, the researchers said.

Of the 1,883 children, two per cent were underweight and 15 per cent overweight or obese.

"Comprehensive and effective school nutrition programs that are targeted at all age groups, with special attention to adolescents and girls, are needed because the data for overweight and iron-deficiency anemia are alarming," they concluded.

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'Nights were like nightmares'

A paper on women in labour and midwives included personal accounts of childbirth experiences during the 23 days of Israeli assault on the Gaza Strip in December 2008 and January 2009. One researcher interviewed the women in Arabic, and the quotes were transcribed and translated for the paper.

One woman was quoted as saying: "I was not thinking like other people in face of death or shelling, but was only thinking of my case. What would happen if I had labour pains at night? How will I manage? They were shelling even ambulances. Nights were like nightmares. Each morning, I breathed a sigh of relief that daylight had appeared."

Two weeks ago, Israel pledged it would allow all goods in Gaza, except weapons and items considered to have a military use, after deciding to ease the three-year blockade it imposed after Hamas won a Palestinian election in 2006 and took control of the territory.

The rest of the journal's series looks at maternal health, cardiovascular diseases, diabetes and cancer, health and human security, and the future of the health-care system in the Palestinian territories.