Effect of Soybean Fortified Porridges on the Nutritional Status of Pre-school Children 3-5Years Old from Western Kenya

Amos Kipkemoi Ronoh

doi:10.11648/j.jfns.20170504.13

Abstract

Protein and energy malnutrition continues to be a global health problem particularly in Sub-Saharan Africa. This is attributed to high levels of poverty where most households cannot afford animal source proteins. Cheaper and sustainable legumes can be used to address this. To evaluate the effect of soybean fortified porridges on the nutritional status of children in early childhood development centre at Mateka Primary School, Bungoma County. A longitudinal survey and Complete Randomized Design experimental design were employed in this study. The first porridge formulation was made of maize and soybean in the ratio 75:25, the second maize, and sorghum soybeans in the ratio 50:25:25 and the third formulation 100% maize. The three porridges were randomly allocated to three groups of the children and were fed for a period of six months with approximately 300ml of the porridge. Nutritional assessment was done at baseline, and every month for six months at the ninth month. At baseline, 30%, 6.7% and 10.8% of the children were stunted, wasted and underweight respectively. At the end of the feeding trial, there was significant (p<0.05) reduction in the levels of underweight (47.27%) and wasting (44.23%) in the soybean fortified porridge groups. The group fed on maize-soybean blend and maize-sorghum-soybean blend gained 1.77kgs and 0.62kgs respectively. In conclusion, soybean fortified porridges improved the nutritional status of the children. It is recommended that awareness of the nutritional benefits of soybean should be raised to increase its adoption in the households and also it will be valuable schools with feeding programs to introduce corn-soy blends or products as part of school meals.

Highlights

Malnutrition is a serious global health problem brought about by inequalities in the economic systems and social injustices resulting in incidences of underweight and stunting among children [1]
Increasing Protein Energy Malnutrition (PEM) levels in Sub-Saharan Africa and Asia is attributed to high levels of poverty [4] such that most families in these countries cannot afford to include animal protein in their diets owed to their high cost
This study showed that fortification of commonly consumed cereal, maize and sorghum, with soybean improved the nutrient adequacy of the diet, which in turn led to improved nutritional status of the children

Summary

Introduction

Malnutrition is a serious global health problem brought about by inequalities in the economic systems and social injustices resulting in incidences of underweight and stunting among children [1]. In 2014 alone, 6.3 million children were reported globally to have died of malnutrition by the World Health Education Service [2]. Increasing PEM levels in Sub-Saharan Africa and Asia is attributed to high levels of poverty [4] such that most families in these countries cannot afford to include animal protein in their diets owed to their high cost. With this regard, these people consume plant based diets as they are cheaper, though their quality is poorer compared to animal proteins that contain all indispensable amino acids and have high digestibility [5]. It has been documented that compositing legume proteins with those from cereal and root

Methods

Results

Conclusion