Effectiveness of Nutrition Education on Nutrient intake and Nutrition Status of infants in Ondo State, Nigeria| Biomed Grid

Malnutrition during infancy has been linked to lack or low knowledge of appropriate feeding practices of the caregivers. This study determined the effectiveness of nutrition education on Minimum Acceptable Diet (MAD) as an indicator of complementary feeding to achieve the nutrient intake and nutrition status of infants (6-11months) in Ondo State, Nigeria. The study was a cluster randomized controlled trial design, whereby the participants were assigned to two groups. One intervention and one control group in a ratio of 1:1. The sample size was 142 for intervention group and 142 for the control group. Nutrition education on MAD was carried out among the caregivers in the intervention group and the control group received no nutrition education. The nutrition education was based on dietary diversity and meal frequency putting into consideration the hygiene practices. To determine the nutrient intake of the infants, data was collected from caregivers as the infants progressed in age using questionnaires. nutrient intake of the infants was assessed using 24-hr dietary recall. Data were analyzed using SPSS version 22.0. From the analysis, there was no significant difference in demographic and socio-economic status of the caregivers and Nutri-survey software for the nutrient intake. There was no significant difference in the complementary food intake of the infants as intended by the caregivers at the baseline. At the midline and the endline after the nutrition education, the nutrients intake of the infants in the intervention group was higher than the nutrient intake of the infants in the control group as analyzed using nutri-survey. Energy intake of infants in the intervention group was higher both at the midline (259kcal±20.67) and at the endline (366.7kcal±23.03) than those in the control group both at the midline (121.1kcal±17.05) and the endline (212kcal±22.04). There was a significant difference in WAZ (t. test; p=0.001), WAZ (t. test; p=0.001) but no significant difference in HAZ (t. test; p=0.049). There was an association between meal frequency and under nutrition (AOR: 0.489 (0.26-0.92) p-value; 0.027, dietary diversity and stunting (AOR:1.493 (1.25- 1.80) p-value; 0.001)