An overview of the nutritional status of childbearing age women, children and adolescents living in a rural area of Madagascar: preliminary results of the Tany Vao project

Abstract

Objective: to describe the food consumption, nutrition knowledge and nutritional assessment of childbearing age women and their children, living in rural villages in Madagascar. The results presented are related to the Tany Vao research study. Design: a cross sectional pilot study. Setting: the study was carried out in Ampanitosoha village on Nosy Mitsio island in Madagascar. Participants: 32 women (14-49 years) and 36 children and adolescents (2-17 years). Results: 70% of the women lacked nutrition knowledge and didn’t reach the MDD-W cut-off. The median BMI was 21.1 kg/m2 but 55.2% of the women exceeded the cut-off for WHR, 51.7% for WHtR and 81.2% for MUAC. Almost all had adequate intake of energy, protein and carbohydrates, while 27.6% had excessive fat intake and 75.9% of added sugars. Over half of the women did not meet the micronutrients RDI. For children, the MUAC z-score (MCAZ) was lower for boys than for girls (P-value=0.041). Conclusions: These results underline the importance of increasing women’s nutritional knowledge to promote healthy pregnancy and lactation. Moreover, it is fundamental to provide people living in rural areas with sustainable tools to improve dietary diversity and support long term health.

The Double Burden of Malnutrition among Adolescents from Zimbabwe: A Cross-Sectional Study

“…Underweight was significantly associated with inadequate nutrition knowledge, particularly the knowledge of adequate and balanced nutrition, age group (14-16 years old) and employment status of the household head (being formally employed and or unemployed). Although the finding that being underweight is associated with low nutrition knowledge has been reported in other countries [5,27], this result particularly indicates that the lack of knowledge of adequate and balanced nutrition is unique within our study population. This leads to unhealthy dietary patterns where the adolescents eat snacks more often than staple foods such that their nutritional needs are not met.…”

“…Physical activity naturally reduces as children transition to adolescents' adolescence [15,37,38]. This is due to many factors including the shift of academic goals and serious study patterns among high school students compared to primary school students, puberty and body consciousness especially among girls with the exception to of those adolescents who are actively athletic [27,28,39,40]. There is promising observational and interventional evidence on adolescent physical activity behaviors as shown by the Zimbabwean physical activity report card that summarizes the most recent evidence of physical activity participation among school children and adolescents [41].…”

“…Our findings show an association between formally employed households and overweight status. This finding is understandable considering in Zimbabwe, those who have better lifestyles earn more and eat more are either employed and run side businesses or self-employed (entrepreneurs) [27,28]. In addition to the nutrition transition in Zimbabwe, overweight status may arise from socio-economic and cultural beliefs that associate traditional healthy foods with poverty [34,46].…”