IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jijerp/v18y2020i1p261-d473161.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Nutritional Status of Children 24–60 Months Attending Early Child Development Centres in a Semi-Rural Community in South Africa

Author

Listed:
  • Onwaba Makanjana

    (Department of Consumer Sciences: Food and Nutrition, Durban University of Technology, 70 Steve Biko Road, Musgrave, Berea 4001, South Africa)

  • Ashika Naicker

    (Department of Consumer Sciences: Food and Nutrition, Durban University of Technology, 70 Steve Biko Road, Musgrave, Berea 4001, South Africa)

Abstract

Despite the numerous efforts to improve the nutritional status of children, a high prevalence of malnutrition still exists in South Africa. This study aimed to determine the nutritional status of children attending Early Child Development centres in South Africa. In this baseline study, we randomly selected two Early Child Development centres comprising 116 children aged 24–60 months, separated into two cohorts, of 24–47 months and 48–60 months. Dietary intake was measured through the 24 hDR and analysed using Food Finder software. The food frequency questionnaire was used to calculate the food variety and food group diversity scores. Anthropometric measurements were taken and the WHO Anthro software was used to convert it to nutritional data indices. Blood samples were collected through dried blood spot cards in order to determine serum retinol and haemoglobin levels and they were assessed using WHO indicators. The findings showed that participants between 24 and 47 months had a high mean energy intake (4906.2 kJ and 4997.9 kJ for girls and boys, respectively). For the 48–60 months age group, energy intake was lower than the EER (5936.4 kJ and 5621.2 kJ; p = 0.038). There was low fruit and vegetable consumption (24–47 months; 63.8 g and 69.5 g ( p = 0.037), 48–60 months; 68.3 g and 74.4 g ( p = 0.038) and the top five foods consumed were carbohydrate rich foods for girls and boys, respectively. Stunting was noted in 7% and 20% (48–60 months) ( p = 0.012) and overweight in 8% and 17% (24–47 months) and 17% and 13% (48–60 months) ( p = 0.041) in girls and boys, respectively. Low serum retinol levels (<0.070 µmol/L) were found in 9.1% of boys (24–47 months), and 8% and 7.4% of girls and boys (48–60 months), respectively. Low haemoglobin levels (<11.0 g/dL) were found in 50.0% and 30.4% (24–47 months) and 8.6% and 39.3% (48–60 months) of girls and boys, respectively. Malnutrition, despite many national and provincial initiatives, still exists in Early Childhood Development centres in South Africa, calling for the application of contextualized nutrition interventions to suit resource-poor settings.

Suggested Citation

  • Onwaba Makanjana & Ashika Naicker, 2020. "Nutritional Status of Children 24–60 Months Attending Early Child Development Centres in a Semi-Rural Community in South Africa," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(1), pages 1-12, December.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:18:y:2020:i:1:p:261-:d:473161
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/18/1/261/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/18/1/261/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Sikhulumile Sinyolo & Catherine Ndinda & Conrad Murendo & Sithembile A. Sinyolo & Mudzunga Neluheni, 2020. "Access to Information Technologies and Consumption of Fruits and Vegetables in South Africa: Evidence from Nationally Representative Data," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 17(13), pages 1-17, 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. Hanjin Xie & Xi Tan & Jun Li & Shuang Qu & Chunmei Yang, 2023. "Does Information Infrastructure Promote Low-Carbon Development? Evidence from the “Broadband China” Pilot Policy," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 20(2), pages 1-21, January.

    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:gam:jijerp:v:18:y:2020:i:1:p:261-:d:473161. 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: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    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.