Effects of a nutrition education intervention on maternal nutrition knowledge, dietary intake and nutritional status among food insecure households in Kenya

Abstract

Background: Malnutrition remains a major concern in the developing countries especially in food insecure populations. Maternal nutrition knowledge, among other factors, has been shown to improve nutritional status in children under the age of 5 years. The purpose of this study was to determine the effect of a nutrition education intervention on maternal nutrition knowledge, dietary intake, and nutritional status in Turkana County, Kenya.Methods: Seventy-three mothers/female caretakers with children <5 years old from Nadapal village in Turkana County were included in the study. At baseline, maternal nutritional knowledge, maternal and child nutritional status, and dietary intake were assessed. During the intervention, participants were trained on breastfeeding, complementary feeding, hygiene and sanitation. The intervention was conducted for five days with two- three hour sessions each day. Six months after the intervention, a follow-up was done to assess the effect of the intervention.Results: At baseline, 53% of the women were underweight (BMI<18.5 kg/m2), 24% of the children were stunted, 20.7% wasted, and 28.6% underweight. After the intervention, maternal knowledge on length of breastfeeding and composition of complementary foods improved. There were no significant changes in nutritional status in both women and children after the intervention.Conclusions: Results from this study implied that nutrition education interventions may improve nutrition knowledge of the mothers /female caretakers. However, without provision of food, the effects of the gained nutrition knowledge may not reflect in the dietary intake or nutritional status and therefore future interventions need to include ways to reduce food insecurity.

Nutrition Education Programs Aimed at African Mothers of Infant Children: A Systematic Review

“…Virtually all of the selected studies are randomized clinical trials, except for three [ 37 , 45 , 52 ], which are quasi-experimental. There are three types of programs: those that use only pedagogical models and kitchen practices (EP) [ 11 , 13 , 14 , 17 , 22 , 24 , 35 , 45 , 47 , 50 , 51 ], those that use pedagogical methods and encourage domestic agriculture (AEP) [ 20 , 32 , 39 ] and those that use pedagogical methods and food supplementation (ESP) [ 27 , 31 , 37 , 43 , 46 ].…”

“…Virtually all of the selected studies are randomized clinical trials, except for three [ 37 , 45 , 52 ], which are quasi-experimental. There are three types of programs: those that use only pedagogical models and kitchen practices (EP) [ 11 , 13 , 14 , 17 , 22 , 24 , 35 , 45 , 47 , 50 , 51 ], those that use pedagogical methods and encourage domestic agriculture (AEP) [ 20 , 32 , 39 ] and those that use pedagogical methods and food supplementation (ESP) [ 27 , 31 , 37 , 43 , 46 ]. Validated educational models were mainly provided by the World Health Organization (WHO) [ 24 , 35 , 50 , 51 , 52 ], United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) [ 14 , 32 ], Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) [ 14 , 32 ], Positive Deviance/Hearth [ 27 , 31 , 37 ], the Health Belief Model [ 17 , 22 , 47 ] and Alive and Thrive [ 11 , 22 ].…”

“…Validated educational models were mainly provided by the World Health Organization (WHO) [ 24 , 35 , 50 , 51 , 52 ], United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) [ 14 , 32 ], Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) [ 14 , 32 ], Positive Deviance/Hearth [ 27 , 31 , 37 ], the Health Belief Model [ 17 , 22 , 47 ] and Alive and Thrive [ 11 , 22 ]. Other programs used guides or manuals designed by the researchers [ 39 , 45 , 52 ].…”

“…Some of the nutrition education programs were implemented by mothers who are leaders in the environment [ 20 , 45 ] and others by health teams or health professionals [ 13 , 14 , 17 , 20 , 22 , 27 , 31 , 35 , 37 , 47 , 50 , 51 ], community volunteers [ 17 , 27 , 31 , 32 , 43 ] or a mixture of both [ 17 , 20 , 27 , 31 ].…”

“…The effect of the program on mothers or infants was assessed by various indicators. Several EPs have used different questionnaires to evaluate eating activities and the knowledge acquired by the mothers in food hygiene, food selection and complementary feeding [ 11 , 13 , 14 , 17 , 22 , 24 , 45 , 47 ]. They have also used indicators of infant feeding such as minimum dietary diversity (MDD), which assesses the consumption of four or more food groups, and minimum meal frequency (MMF), which assesses the proportion of breastfed children aged 6 to 23 months of age who received food a minimum number of times or more per day.…”