MST-Department of Foods, Nutrition & Dietetics

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Browsing MST-Department of Foods, Nutrition & Dietetics by Subject "Anaemia"

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    Dietary Practices, Anaemia and Nutritional Status among Day-Secondary School Adolescent Girls in Machakos County, Kenya
    (Kenyatta University, 2022) Nduku, Mulei Dorcas; Peter Chege; Dorcus Mbithe David Kigaru
    A dolescence is a critical phase of growth and development a nd anaemia during this stage can cause irreversible negative outcomes on learning, work capacity and parenthood. P oor diet remains a major risk factor for anaemia an d malnutrition among adolescent girls. Adoption of good dietary habits in adolescence enhances o ptimal growth a nd development , and is linked with better health outcomes in adulthood . This stu dy aim ed to determine anaemia and nutritional status among day secondary school adol escent girls in Matuu ward , Machakos County ; describe their dietary practices and establish the associated risk factors. A cross sectional analytical study design was adopt ed and a sample of 238 girls was random ly selected from the day schools by propor tion to size . A researcher ad ministered questionnaire was used for data collection Data on nutrient intake and d ietary p ractices was generated using a 24 hour dietary recall questionnaire a nd a 7 day food frequency questionnaire (FFQ). Anthropometric d ata of weight and h eight was used to determine nutrition al status while haemoglobin ( concentration was used to assess anaemia. Respondent’s a ge was calculated using WHO Anthr oPlus software. Data entry and analysis was done using SPSS version 20. BMI for Age BAZ > +2 Z scor e / BMI ≥30 was termed as obesity, BAZ > +1 and < +2 Z score / BMI 25.0 29.9 overweigh t and BAZ < 2 Z score / BMI < 18.5 underweight. Height for Age Z score HAZ < 2 Z score was stunting . Haemoglobin concentration <120g/L after altitude adjustment was termed as anaemia. Data from 24hr recall was analysed using Nutri survey and transferred to SPSS. Pearson correlation and Chi square tests were used to determine relationships and association between variables. Binary logistic regression was used to predic t outcomes. The p value for statistical significance was set at 0.05 . Data was presented in form of percentages, frequencies, and means. The mean age of the study subjects was 16.79 ± 1.38 Dietary intakes for energy and iron were below RDA while carbohydr ate intake w as above RDA. A proportion of 44.4 achieved the minimum dietary diversity for women of reproductive a ge (MDD W ). The prevalence of anaemia was 28.6% 28.6%. A bout a fifth (21.6%) of the respondents were either underweight, overweight or obese BAZ w as positively related to carbohydrate intake r = 0.429, p value = <0.001) while iron intake r = 0.61, p value = and dietary diversity score r = 0.175 , p v alue = 0.012 were positive ly relat ed to Hb levels Household size ( 0.2 1(95%C.I ; 0.06 0 .70 )), p = 0.030), morbidity status in previous 2 weeks (AOR =2.7 0 (95%C.I; 1.24 5.90), p = 0.013) 0.013), dietary diversity tertile (AOR= 0.12(95%C.I; 0.02 0.79), p = 0.039) and adequacy of iron (AOR=10.4 (95% C.I; 2.12 199.08), p = 0.009) wer e the determinants of ana emia. Based on these study findings, it is concluded that the problem of anaemia among the day school adolescent girls is higher than the national level of 23.8% and their overall nutritional status is poor. Intervention strategies to improve nutrie nt intake and diversification of diet among adolescent girls in learning insti tutions are therefore recommended.