IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/ags/aesjfr/405412.html

Nutrition Intakes and Nutritional Status of School Age Children in Ghana

Author

Listed:
  • Owusu, Justina
  • Colecraft, Esi
  • Aryeetey, Richmond
  • Vaccaro, Joan
  • Huffman, Fatma

Abstract

This paper compares nutrition intakes and nutritional status of school children from two public schools in neighbouring communities of Ghana with different school feeding programmes. One hundred and eighty-two caregiver and school-age child pairs were interviewed concerning socio-demographics, dietary practices, and food security in a cross-sectional design. The independent t-test was used to compare the contribution of the publicly funded Ghana School Feeding Programme and private School Feeding Programme meals to total daily nutrient intakes of the children. Predictors of nutritional status of the children were assessed using logistic regression models. The private school feeding programme contributed more energy, protein, and micronutrients as compared to the government school feeding programme. About two-thirds (67.0%) of the children were stunted, underweight, or anaemic. Child’s age was a significant predictor of stunting. Undernutrition was prevalent among children from both programmes. Improved quality of diet from the feeding programmes may contribute to addressing malnutrition in these children.

Suggested Citation

  • Owusu, Justina & Colecraft, Esi & Aryeetey, Richmond & Vaccaro, Joan & Huffman, Fatma, 2017. "Nutrition Intakes and Nutritional Status of School Age Children in Ghana," Journal of Food Research, Canadian Center of Science and Education, vol. 6(2).
    • Handle: RePEc:ags:aesjfr:405412
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://ageconsearch.umn.edu/record/405412/files/64252-239468-1-PB.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Fentiman, Alicia & Hall, Andrew & Bundy, Don, 2001. "Health and cultural factors associated with enrolment in basic education: a study in rural Ghana," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 52(3), pages 429-439, February.
    2. Danquah, A. & Amoah, A. & Steiner-Asiedu, M. & Opare-Obisaw, C., 2012. "Nutritional Status of Participating and Non-participating Pupils in the Ghana School Feeding Programme," Journal of Food Research, Canadian Center of Science and Education, vol. 1(3).
    3. Afridi, Farzana, 2010. "Child welfare programs and child nutrition: Evidence from a mandated school meal program in India," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 92(2), pages 152-165, July.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Zhao, Chunkai & Chen, Boou & Song, Zhiyong, 2024. "School nutritious feeding and cognitive abilities of students in poverty: Evidence from the nutrition improvement program in China," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 159(C).
    2. Chakraborty, Tanika & Jayaraman, Rajshri, 2019. "School feeding and learning achievement: Evidence from India's midday meal program," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 139(C), pages 249-265.
    3. Amit K. Giri & S.P. Singh, 2016. "Child Labour and ‘Nowhere’ Children in Post-reforms India," Indian Journal of Human Development, , vol. 10(1), pages 97-110, April.
    4. Lara Cockx & Nathalie Francken, 2016. "Evolution and impact of EU aid for food and nutrition security: a review," Working Papers of LICOS - Centre for Institutions and Economic Performance 572519, KU Leuven, Faculty of Economics and Business (FEB), LICOS - Centre for Institutions and Economic Performance.
    5. Amara E Ezeamama & Amaya L Bustinduy & Allan K Nkwata & Leonardo Martinez & Noel Pabalan & Michael J Boivin & Charles H King, 2018. "Cognitive deficits and educational loss in children with schistosome infection—A systematic review and meta-analysis," PLOS Neglected Tropical Diseases, Public Library of Science, vol. 12(1), pages 1-23, January.
    6. Sudha Narayanan Narayanan & Nicolas Gerber, 2016. "Safety Nets for Food and Nutritional Security in India," FOODSECURE Working papers 37, LEI Wageningen UR.
    7. Harold Alderman & Donald Bundy, 2012. "School Feeding Programs and Development: Are We Framing the Question Correctly?," The World Bank Research Observer, World Bank, vol. 27(2), pages 204-221, August.
    8. Sudha Narayanan & Nicolas Gerber, 2015. "Social safety nets for food and nutritional security in India," Indira Gandhi Institute of Development Research, Mumbai Working Papers 2015-031, Indira Gandhi Institute of Development Research, Mumbai, India.
    9. Rohini Somanathan & Bidisha Barooah & Farzana Afridi, 2016. "The Mixture as Before? Student Responses to the Changing Content of School Meals in India," Working Papers id:10874, eSocialSciences.
    10. Dhananjay Patra & Nalin Bharti & Meghna Dutta, 2025. "Are Better Equipped Schools Delivering Better Student Outcomes? Evidence from India," Indian Journal of Human Development, , vol. 19(1), pages 68-88, April.
    11. Ambreen Khursheed, 2022. "Exploring the role of microfinance in women’s empowerment and entrepreneurial development: a qualitative study," Future Business Journal, Springer, vol. 8(1), pages 1-13, December.
    12. O.O'Donnell & F.Rosati & E.van Doorslaer, 2003. "Health Effects of Children's Work: Evidence from Vietnam," UCW Working Paper 2, Understanding Children's Work (UCW Programme).
    13. Gautam Bose & Arghya Ghosh, 2022. "Affirmative Action, Equal Opportunity, or just tax the rich? Development, efficiency, and the pursuit of equity," Discussion Papers 2022-02, School of Economics, The University of New South Wales.
    14. Nandi, Arindam & Haberland, Nicole & Ngo, Thoai D., 2023. "The impact of primary schooling expansion on adult educational attainment, literacy, and health: Evidence from India’s Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan," International Journal of Educational Development, Elsevier, vol. 102(C).
    15. Farzana Afridi & Bidisha Barooah & Rohini Somanathan, 2016. "Student responses to the changing content of school meals in India," Working papers 264, Centre for Development Economics, Delhi School of Economics.
    16. Owen O'Donnell & Furio C. Rosati & Eddy van Doorslaer, 2005. "Health effects of child work: Evidence from rural Vietnam," Journal of Population Economics, Springer;European Society for Population Economics, vol. 18(3), pages 437-467, September.
    17. Orazem, Peter F. & Glewwe, Paul & Patrinos, Harry, 2007. "The Benefits and Costs of Alternative Strategies to Improve Educational Outcomes," Working Papers 7352, Iowa State University, Department of Economics.
    18. Nitya Mittal & J.V. Meenakshi, 2016. "Does the ICDS Improve the Quantity and Quality of Children’s Diets? Some Evidence from Rural Bihar," Working papers 257, Centre for Development Economics, Delhi School of Economics.
    19. Lana Whittaker, 2024. "Underpaid, undervalued, and overworked: The working conditions of cooks in India's school lunch programme," Development Policy Review, Overseas Development Institute, vol. 42(4), July.
    20. Afridi, Farzana & Barooah, Bidisha & Somanathan, Rohini, 2019. "Hunger and Performance in the Classroom," IZA Discussion Papers 12627, IZA Network @ LISER.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    ;

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:ags:aesjfr:405412. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: AgEcon Search (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.ccsenet.org/ .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.