Type | Thesis or Dissertation - Doctor of Philosophy |
Title | Dietary intake of children aged 1 year to 5 years and their anthropometric measures in Kweneng district-Botswana |
Author(s) | |
Publication (Day/Month/Year) | 2012 |
URL | https://etd.ohiolink.edu/!etd.send_file?accession=case1346223185&disposition=inline |
Abstract | Background. The nutritional well-being of young children is positively and negatively affected by the interaction between food intake, health and care. Most important, inadequate intake of food, energy and nutrients remains highly prevalent in developing countries. Dietary standards designed to provide guidelines on basic nutrients for sufficient growth and health that are found in the developed countries do not exist or are not accessible to many in the third world or developing countries. Purpose. The major focus of this study was to describe and explore the relationship between the food and beverages consumed by children aged 1 to 5 years and their anthropometric measurements as well as to determine the relationships between the children’s food and beverage consumption, caregiver’s household food security and children’s anthropometric measures. Methods. A cross-sectional descriptive -correlational design was used. A convenience sample including 99 pairs of caregivers and their children was recruited from six clinical sites. Data collection employed face-to-face interviews and the xii participants responded to three instruments. The instruments included the Caregiver Demographic Data Form, Child Food Frequency Questionnaire and the Household Food Security Scale. In addition, anthropomorphic measurement including heights and weights were obtained from children. Data were analyzed by descriptive methods, the Pearson product moment correlations, independent sample t-tests and one-way ANOVA. Results. The caregivers were aged 18 to 65 years (M = 33.65, SD = 10.50) and children’s ages ranged from12-56 months (M = 28.99, SD = 12.9). Five percent had weight-for-height z-scores at -1, while 16.2% had HAZ that were below the -2 z-score indicating stunted growth. Thirty-one percent of children were at risk for overweight. The five core/main food items that were frequently consumed by the children were sorghum, milk, sugar, tea/coffee and yoghurt. The mean energy intake was 1618.4 kcal/d, (SD = 713.4) and the mean protein intake was 45.9 g/d (SD = 22.1). Nineteen percent of caregivers were food secure while 28.3% and 20.2% were moderately and severely food insecure respectively. The independent samples t-test revealed statistically significant differences among the household food security score means for caregivers with low and high education, suggesting that caregivers with low education were more likely to be food insecure than their counterparts with higher education. Children’s total energy and protein intakes were statistically significant and moderately correlated with height and weight (r (97) =.35 p<.01 and r (97) =.32 p<.01) 2-tailed). The one-way ANOVA results were [F (2, 96) = 9.19, p<.05] (energy) and [F (2, 96) = 6.59, p<.05] (protein). These findings indicated that the average intake of energy and protein differed according to the age groups of children. xiii Conclusion. Overall, the findings show that children in the study consumed a limited number of food items that may lead to inadequate intake of nutrients such as vitamins and minerals. In addition, the prevalence of household food insecurity, stunting of growth among children and the BMI suggestive of higher risk for overweight warrant further investigation. Future longitudinal studies should examine the associations between dietary patterns and child health and development to provide evidence needed to improve dietary advice given to parents of young children. |
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