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

Received: 15 May 2017     Accepted: 23 May 2017     Published: 12 July 2017
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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.

Published in Journal of Food and Nutrition Sciences (Volume 5, Issue 4)
DOI 10.11648/j.jfns.20170504.13
Page(s) 155-161
Creative Commons

This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, provided the original work is properly cited.

Copyright

Copyright © The Author(s), 2017. Published by Science Publishing Group

Keywords

Soybean Fortification, Nutritional Status, Pre-school Children

References
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    Amos Kipkemoi Ronoh, Gertrude Mercy Were, Florence Wakhu-Wamunga, John Brian Wamunga. (2017). Effect of Soybean Fortified Porridges on the Nutritional Status of Pre-school Children 3-5Years Old from Western Kenya. Journal of Food and Nutrition Sciences, 5(4), 155-161. https://doi.org/10.11648/j.jfns.20170504.13

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    ACS Style

    Amos Kipkemoi Ronoh; Gertrude Mercy Were; Florence Wakhu-Wamunga; John Brian Wamunga. Effect of Soybean Fortified Porridges on the Nutritional Status of Pre-school Children 3-5Years Old from Western Kenya. J. Food Nutr. Sci. 2017, 5(4), 155-161. doi: 10.11648/j.jfns.20170504.13

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    AMA Style

    Amos Kipkemoi Ronoh, Gertrude Mercy Were, Florence Wakhu-Wamunga, John Brian Wamunga. Effect of Soybean Fortified Porridges on the Nutritional Status of Pre-school Children 3-5Years Old from Western Kenya. J Food Nutr Sci. 2017;5(4):155-161. doi: 10.11648/j.jfns.20170504.13

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  • @article{10.11648/j.jfns.20170504.13,
      author = {Amos Kipkemoi Ronoh and Gertrude Mercy Were and Florence Wakhu-Wamunga and John Brian Wamunga},
      title = {Effect of Soybean Fortified Porridges on the Nutritional Status of Pre-school Children 3-5Years Old from Western Kenya},
      journal = {Journal of Food and Nutrition Sciences},
      volume = {5},
      number = {4},
      pages = {155-161},
      doi = {10.11648/j.jfns.20170504.13},
      url = {https://doi.org/10.11648/j.jfns.20170504.13},
      eprint = {https://article.sciencepublishinggroup.com/pdf/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.},
     year = {2017}
    }
    

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    AU  - Amos Kipkemoi Ronoh
    AU  - Gertrude Mercy Were
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    UR  - https://doi.org/10.11648/j.jfns.20170504.13
    AB  - 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.
    VL  - 5
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Author Information
  • School of Agriculture and Biotechnology, Department of Family and Consumer Sciences, University of Eldoret, Eldoret, Kenya

  • School of Agriculture and Biotechnology, Department of Family and Consumer Sciences, University of Eldoret, Eldoret, Kenya

  • School of Agriculture and Biotechnology, Department of Family and Consumer Sciences, University of Eldoret, Eldoret, Kenya

  • School of Applied Human Sciences, Department of Food, Nutrition and Dietetics, Kenyatta University, Nairobi, Kenya

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