Home Print this page Email this page Small font sizeDefault font sizeIncrease font size
Users Online: 303

 

Home About us Editorial board Search Ahead of print Current issue Archives Submit article Instructions Subscribe Advertise Contacts Login 
     
ORIGINAL ARTICLE
Year : 2016  |  Volume : 57  |  Issue : 6  |  Page : 307-313

Dietary practices and nutritional status of under-five children in rural and urban communities of Lagos State, Nigeria


1 Department of Paediatrics and Child Health, Paediatrics Gastroenterology/Hepatology/Nutrition Unit, Lagos State University College of Medicine, Ikeja, Lagos, Nigeria
2 Department of Nutrition and Dietetics, College of Food Science and Human Ecology, Federal University of Agriculture, Abeokuta, Nigeria

Correspondence Address:
Idowu O Senbanjo
Department of Paediatrics and Child Health, Paediatrics Gastroenterology/Hepatology/Nutrition Unit, Lagos State University College of Medicine, PMB 21266, Ikeja, Lagos
Nigeria
Login to access the Email id

Source of Support: None, Conflict of Interest: None


DOI: 10.4103/0300-1652.193854

Rights and Permissions

Background: Evidence shows that urban children generally have a better nutritional status than their rural counterparts. However, data establishing whether this difference in prevalence of undernutrition could be ascribed to difference in dietary practices are few. Objective: The aim of this study was to compare dietary practices and nutritional status of children in rural and urban communities of Lagos State, Nigeria. Methods: This was a comparative-analytical study conducted using the multistage sampling technique to select the study cases. A total of 300 mother-child pairs were studied, including 150 each from rural and urban communities. Data collected include demographics, socioeconomic characteristics, feeding practices and anthropometric measurements of the participants. Food intake data were collected using 24-h dietary recall. Malnutrition in children was determined by calculating the prevalence of low height-for-age (stunting), low weight-for-age (underweight), and low weight-for-height (wasting) using the World Health Organization cutoff points. Results: The prevalence of exclusive breastfeeding for 6 months (25.3% vs. 28.7%; P = 0.516), use of formula feeds (48.7% vs. 44%; P = 0.077), and mean age of child at introduction of semisolid foods (7.54 ± 4.0 months vs. 8.51 ± 7.3 months; P = 0.117) were not significantly different between urban and rural communities. The diversity of food choices and frequencies of consumption were similar between urban and rural communities. However, prevalence levels of underweight and stunted children were significantly higher in rural than that of urban communities (19.4% vs. 9.3%, P < 0.001 and 43.3% vs. 12.6%, P < 0.001, respectively). Conclusions: Other risk factors besides inappropriate feeding practices need to be considered for higher prevalence of undernutrition among children in rural communities.


[FULL TEXT] [PDF]*
Print this article     Email this article
 Next article
 Previous article
 Table of Contents

 Similar in PUBMED
   Search Pubmed for
   Search in Google Scholar for
 Related articles
 Citation Manager
 Access Statistics
 Reader Comments
 Email Alert *
 Add to My List *
 * Requires registration (Free)
 

 Article Access Statistics
    Viewed16342    
    Printed455    
    Emailed0    
    PDF Downloaded33    
    Comments [Add]    
    Cited by others 7    

Recommend this journal