Dietary Diversity and Micronutrients Adequacy of Diets Consumed by School Aged Children in Nairobi City County, Kenya

Abstract

Volume 5-Issue 1 | Dietary assessment is one of the ways in assessing micronutrient malnutrition. This assessment provides information about the quality of food consumed in terms of micronutrients adequacy of children [7,8]. Further, dietary diversity assessment help determine the risk of deficiency due to low intakes of essential nutrients needed for good health. It also serves as a proxy for measurement of the nutritional quality of an individual's diet [1] and in determining whether the child's diet has the important elements needed for growth or not. Eating a wide variety of foods is likely to increase micronutrients adequacy [9]. While there is sufficient information available on the dietary intake of preschool children from the Kenya health demographic surveys, data is scarce on specific population groups such as school aged children. This study assessed the dietary diversity as a proxy measure of adequacy of micronutrients intake among public school aged Abstract School aged children are at a stage of growth that experience changes in biological, psychological and social dimensions. Nutrition inadequacy in this stage affects nutritional status and health and mental outcomes later in life. Dietary assessment is one of the ways of assessing adequacy of diets consumed by children. Minimal information is available on dietary diversity and micronutrient adequacy among school aged children in Kenya. This study provides information about the micronutrients as influenced by dietary diversity. A cross sectional study design was used to collect data on a target sample of 337 children from urban day primary schools in Nairobi City County calculated using Fisher formula. Systematic random sampling was adopted to get the children. Dietary diversity and 24-hour recall questionnaires were used to assess diversity and adequacy of the micronutrients intake. Data from 24-hour recall was analyzed using Nutri-survey computer software. The Dietary Diversity Score (DDS) was calculated from 7 food groups. A score of <4 was considered as low, 4-6 was considered as moderate while a score of >6 were considered as high dietary diversity. Micronutrients adequacy was calculated using Nutrient Adequacy Ratio (NAR) and mean adequacy ratio. Pearson's correlation was applied to find the relationship between dietary diversity and micronutrients adequacy. The mean DDS was 3.8 ± 1.4 and the mean adequacy ratio was 0.59 as opposed to the required value of 1. The diet was predominantly cereals, legumes and green leafy vegetables. The consumption of Vitamin A rich vegetables and fruits, dairy products and flesh foods was low. The proportion of children who had inadequate intake for various nutrients are: iron (33.7%), calcium (40.1%), zinc (31.7%), Vitamin A (29.8%) and Vitamin B12 (38.1%). Pearson's correlation coefficient between DDS and NAR was significant for all the nutrients (p<0.05) meaning the higher the diversity score the higher the amount of micronutrients consumed in relation to the recommended levels. The diet of school children in Nairobi County was not diversified. The diet was deficient of crucial micronutrients. The correlation between DDS and the NAR indicated that on increasing dietary diversity, micronutrients adequacy increased. This study recommends promotion of efforts to improve consumption of diversified diets from available local foods to achieve adequate nutrient intake by school children. The commonly consumed foods can be fortified to ensure availability of missing micronutrient.