Format: MS WORD | Chapter: 1-5 | Pages: 65-80 | .
COMPARATIVE STUDY OF VITAMIN A AND ANTHROPOMETRIC STATUS OF CHILDREN AGED 6-24 MONTHS IN URBAN AND RURAL COMMUNITIES IN KADUNA STATE, NIGERIA.
ABSTRACT
This invest igat ion centered on Vi tamin A and anthropomet r ic status of 400 children aged 6-24 months in urban and rural communi t ies in Kaduna South local government area, Nigeria. Select ion of chi ldren was through systemat ic sampl ing technique. Two hundred children from each communi ty, ninety four males (94) and one hundred and six (106) females from Makera (urban) and ninety three males (93) and one hundred and seven (107) females from Kinkinau ( rural) communi t ies completed the study. A st ructured quest ionnaire was used to collect informat ion on maternal socioeconomic characteristics, l iving condi t ions, heal th care, and 24-hour dietary recal l . Knowledge, at t i tude and pract ice of heal thy l ife style and Vi tamin A supplementation were assessed using focus group discussion. The anthropometric status of the children were measured longi tudinal ly for 6 months wi th wooden length board, and UNICEF weighing scale. Serum ret inol levels of a subsample of 100 subjects were determined. Blood samples were col lected by venipuncture to obtain serum for measurement of retinol concentrat ion using high performance l iquid chromatography. The data was analyzed using anthropomet ric z scores and categorized using WHO Anthro sof tware (2007). Comparison was done using Chi square test for categorical variables and
ANOVA and t-test for cont inuous variables. Al l statistical analysis were done using SPSS version 15 and signif icance judged at presul t , stunt ing (49.8%) was the major nutritional problem ident if ied in most of the chi ldren. However, 14.1% and 7.5% were underweight and wasted, respect ively. The composi te index of anthropomet ric fai lure (CIAF) counted for a total of 55.3% of the chi ldren that had anthropometric fai lures. However, 70.0 % (weight -for -length), 46.5 % (length-for-age) and 83.5 % (weight-for-age) fell wi thin the normal region in al l anthropometric indicators. The prevalence of overweight and obesi ty (combined) was high in the rural (37%) as against 8.0% in the urban locat ion. A total of 84.5% of the urban chi ldren had normal weight-for- length compared to 55.5% of the rural
children. Locat ion signif icant ly (p<0.05) influenced weight-for -age status. However, the percentage of chi ldren wasted in both locat ions was simi lar (7.5%). Urban chi ldren had higher (55.0%) length-for -age value than the rural (46.5%) children. Stunt ing was more prevalent in the rural (49.8%) than in the urban (42.0%) areas. There was st rong associat ion between locat ion and length-for -age status (p<0.05). The rural chi ldren had higher weight -for-age percentage (85.0%) than the urban (82.0%) chi ldren. Underweight was more prevalent in the urban (16.0%) than in the rural (12.0%). However , locat ion had no ef fect (p>0.05) on the weight -for-age status. Age had no relationship with underweight , stunt ing and wast ing in the locat ions and gender. However, age group (6-10 months ) inf luenced (p<0.05%) the prevalence of overweight only in rural females. The growth veloci t ies fluctuated wi thin the study period. The weight veloci ties of the male subjects were higher (p<0.05) than those of the females whi le length veloci t ies of the females were higher (p<0.05) than those of the males. The weight veloci t ies of the rural chi ldren