International Journal of Child Health and Nutrition

86-91

Authors: Joy-Telu Hamilton-Ekeke

The study involves a comparison of pupils’ consumption of macro and micro nutrient rich food as well as healthy and less healthy snacks after being exposed to a teaching model on balanced diet developed by the researcher which takes into cognisance pupils’ prior knowledge of healthy eating. Healthy snacks are snacks that are low in fat and sugar while less healthy snacks are snacks that are high in fat and sugar. The study was carried out in Britain, United Kingdom in summer term of 2007. Participants were year 7 pupils of Ceredigion Local Education Authority in rural Mid-Wales, they were requested to fill-in a Food Diary of food consumed at breakfast, lunch and dinner times including mid-morning and mid-afternoon snacks for five days (Thursday to Monday). This is to include both food consumed at home at weekend as well as school meals consumed at school during weekdays.There was evidence of increase of consumption of healthy snack as well as the consumption of macro nutrients (carbohydrate, fat and protein) and micro nutrients (vitamin, mineral and fibre); all six classes of food that makes up a balanced diet [1] after the intervention compared to before the intervention, although the rate of increase in the consumption of micro nutrient was not statistically significant compared to the increased in the consumption of macro nutrient.This study revealed that though the teaching model was able to alter eating behaviour in the desired direction of healthy eating which is the consumption of micro nutrient. More has to be done to encourage adolescents to consume more vitamin, mineral and fibre rich food items

104-112

Authors: Charles Daboné, Hélène Delisle, Olivier Receveur

The onset of cardiometabolic risk factors in childhood may be tracked into adulthood. However, little is known about such risk factors particularly in African schoolchildren. We conducted in Ouagadougou the capital city of Burkina Faso (West Africa) a cross-sectional study in 5th grade pupils of 12 schools (4 private and 8 public of which 2 were periurban). Weight, height, and blood pressure (BP) were measured and fasting serum lipids and glycaemia were determined. Sample mean age was 11.8±1.4 y (207 children, 51% girls). Mean total cholesterol (TC), LDL-C, HDL-C and triglycerides were 133.9, 83.5, 45.1 and 67.1 mg/dl, respectively; glycaemia stood at 87.9±7.1 mg/dl. Systolic (SBP) and Diastolic Blood Pressure (DBP) were 103.2 and 62.3 mmHg respectively. The main risk factor was low HDL-C (19.3%) followed by high TC and LDL-C (11.6% each). Elevated SBP and DBP were 9.7% and 4.3%, respectively. Being a girl was independently associated with increased serum lipids including HDL-C paradoxically. BMI was independently associated with increased BP. While attending a private school was independently associated (p<0.01) with higher HDL-C and lower TG and DBP, attending urban (vs periurban) school and higher age were independently associated with lower HDL-C. A sizeable proportion of children exhibited cardiometabolic risk factors and therefore, preventive measures would appear timely in low income country schoolchildren, and not only strategies targeting malnutrition.

135-147

Authors: Elizabeth W. Kimani-Murage, Crispin Ndedda, Katherine Raleigh, Peninah Masibo

Background: High levels of undernutrition, particularly stunting, have persisted in Kenya, like in other developing countries. The relationship betweeen vitamin A supplementation and growth of children in Kenya has not been established, while there are context-specific variations on the relationship. This study explores this relationship in the Kenyan context. Methods: The study uses data from the 2008-09 Kenya Demographic and Health Survey, involving children aged 24-35 months, a weighted sample of 1029 children. Descriptive and logistic regression analyses were conducted. The outcome variable of interest is stunting, while the exposure variable of interest is ever receiving a dose of vitamin A supplement. Secondary outcomes include underweight and wasting status. Results: The prevalence of stunting in the study group was 46%; underweight 20%; and wasting 6%. The prevalence of ever receiving vitamin A supplement was 78%. Receiving vitamin A supplement was significantly negatively associated with stunting and underweight status, adjusting for other co-risk factors. The odds of stunting were 50% higher (p=0.038), while for underweight were 75% higher (p=0.013) among children who did not receive Vitamin A supplement compared with those who did. Conclusion: This study demonstrates that receiving vitamin A supplement may be beneficial to growth of young children in Kenya. However, though freely offered through immunization services to children 6-59 months, some children do not receive it, particularly after completing the immunization schedule. There is need to establish innovative and effective ways of maximizing utilization of this intervention, particularly for children who have completed their immunization schedule.

157-164

Authors: Ismael Ngnie-Teta, Dia Sanou

Although sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) is one of the regions in the world that is most affected by malnutrition and hunger, food science and nutrition related-publications by in-country-based authors from this region are rare. The objective of this paper is to analyze scientific production in French speaking SSA countries in the area of nutrition and food sciences (NFS). A bibliometric analysis was performed using the ISI Web of Knowledge database. We explored data for quantity and quality of publications between 1990 and 2009. Among the 21 sub-Saharan African countries with French as the official language, only 11 had more than 20 publications on NFS. This represents 4.7% of the total publications of these countries. The vast majority of the publications were in English (76.7%) despite the official and primary academic language is French in all eleven countries. The average number of citations of articles in French was 0.9 per paper compared to 6.7 per paper published in English. France was the main collaborating country with France-based researchers co-authoring 31.8% of the papers. Collaboration with other African countries was low and usually limited to neighbouring countries. In absolute numbers, Cameroon, Cote d’Ivoire and Benin were the most productive countries. When adjusted for population size, Mauritius, Gabon and Cameroon were the most productive countries per capita and when adjusted for average GDP, Cameroon, Burkina-Faso and Benin were the most productive. French speaking countries in Africa had a very low publication record in NFS and papers published in French were barely cited as compared to those published in English.