Community screening and assessment of dietary intake for food supplementation among malnourished children aged 6-36 months in Thika Urban Slums, Kenya
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Date
2015-09Author
Kiio, Juliana
Ochola, Sophie
Kuria, Elizabeth
Nduati, Ruth
Language
enMetadata
Show full item recordAbstract
Globally, undernutrition accounts for half of deaths among children aged below five years.
Although malnutrition trends in Kenya have been decreasing, the Millennium Development
Goals have not be
en achieved. Current efforts in community screening for malnutrition have not been effective. The aim of this study was to screen for malnourished children, establish the
adequacy of nutrient intake by the children and to establish feeding centres for targ
eted food
supplementation. Moderately malnourished children aged 6
-
36 months were identified through
door
-
to
-
door screening and active case finding. Children enrolled to other food supplementation
programmes were excluded. Chronically sick, severely wasted
and severely anaemic children
were referred to Thika Level 5 Hospital. Dietary intake was assessed using a 24
-
hour recall
questionnaire. Feeding centres were established considering the accessibility to mothers and
availability of clean water and environm
ent. A total of 377 children were identified, 363(96.3%)
were moderately wasted, severely wasted (2.1%) and severely anaemic (1.6%). Over 86.7% of
the children met their protein requirements with daily intakes ranging from 21.7 to 28.6g in the
age categori
es 6
-
8 months, 9
-
11 months, 12
-
23 months and 24
-
36 months. Caloric intake was
adequate for over 61.5% of children in the 6
-
8 month age category and less than 54.6% of the
children aged above 9 months met the RDA for energy intake. The mean daily intake of
iron
ranged from 5.5
-
8.2 mg and was inadequate for over 92.1% of the children in the age categories.
The mean daily intake of zinc ranged from 1.1
-
1.5 mg with over 93.2% of the children not
meeting the RDA. A total of 16 feeding centres were established. P
resence of aggravating factors
for malnutrition such as poverty, food insecurity and poor sanitation calls for frequent screening
of children in slum populations. Due to sub
-
optimal nutrient intake among malnourished
children, food supplementation is recom
mended
URI
http://kupccconference.ku.ac.ke/wp-content/uploads/2014/05/Final-progam-book-of-abstracts.pdfhttp://hdl.handle.net/11295/92253
Citation
Kiio, Juliana., Ochola, Sophie ., Kuria, ElizabethandNduati, Rut (2015). Community screening and assessment of dietary intake for food supplementation among malnourished children aged 6-36 months in Thika Urban Slums, Kenya. 1 st Global Conference on Patient Centered Care, 29 th September – 2 nd October, 2015 Kenyatta University AmphitheatrePublisher
University of Nairobi