FOOD CONSUMPTION PATTERN, ANTHROPOMETRIC INDICES AND MICRONUTRIENT STATUS OF CHILDREN AGED

ABSTRACT
The study was undertaken to assess food consumption pattern, anthropometric and micronutrientstatus of children aged 6-59 months in Kaduna state. A cross sectional survey design was used. Amulti stage sampling technique was used to select the subjects for the study. In the first stage, twoLocal Government Areas were selected from each of the three senatorial districts using simplerandom sampling procedure. This gave a total of 6 Local Government Areas. In the second stage,purposive sampling was used in selecting two communities from each of the local governmentareas (a total of 12 communities). At the third stage, the subjects (420) aged 6 – 59 months wererandomly selected for the study using proportionate sampling technique while 20% sub- samplewas selected for biochemical analysis. Anthropometric information was determined using age,height and weight of the children. Haemoglobin (Hb) was used to determine anemia, serum retinolwas used to determine vitamin A status and also iodine was determined using urinary iodineexcretion level (UIE). Anemia was defined as Hb < 11.0mg/dl, Vitamin A deficiency was definedwas defined as reading ≤ 10g/dl and marginal deficiency <20g/dl. Urinary iodine excretion (UIE)is defined as a reading <10mcg/dl. Socio-economic information and feeding practices were

determined using questionnaire.

The questionnaire was pretested and reliability index of 0.9 wasobtained using Cronbach alpha. Dietary intake was determined using a combination of foodfrequency questionnaire and 24hour food recall. In determining the major staples in the area ofstudy, the result showed that maize was the most frequent staple and rice (cereals) the leastconsumed in Kaduna State. Anthropometric results of the children showed high prevalence ofdifferent categories of malnutrition, 76.4% were too thin for their age (underweight), 70% weretoo short for their age (stunted) while (47.6)% were too thin for their height (wasted).Biochemicalresults , revealed high prevalence of anaemia (53.6%) urinary iodine execration (29.2%) andvitamin A as low as( 3.6%) of the children were deficient. Correlation between anthropometric,biochemical status and socioeconomic information revealed height-for-age of the children andtheir weight-for-age was highly significant (r = 0.666; P<0.001). The following variables alsoshowed significant relationship: Iodine status with height – for – age was significant (r =0.353; P <0.05). There was a significant (r = 0.664; P < 0.01) relationship between weight – for- height andweight- for –age. Iodine and weight- for- age was significant ( r =0.308; P < 0.005). Hemoglobin

correlated with iodine (r = 0.226; P < 0.05).

There was a significant(r =0.333; P < 0.02)relationship between Vitamin A and iodine. Vitamin A and hemoglobin was highly significant (r =0.460; P < 0.01).Family income and weight- for -age was significant(r = 0.247; P< 0.05). Therewere more correlated values that were significant, fathers occupation with family income( r =0.252; P<0.005), mother’s occupation with family income( r = 0.262; P < 0.005), fathers educationwith family income ( r = 0.340;P<0.005) and mothers occupation with fathers occupation (r=0.397;P<0.001).Equally fathers occupation and mothers education was significant(r=0.371;P<0.005) and fathers education with mothers education (r =0.230;P< 0.005).These results were as aresult of faulty feeding practices especially over-dependence on a particular crop(monotonousdiets fed to the children) and low socio-economic status of the parents. The study established that

there is malnutrition in under five children in Kaduna.

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