Citation
Albelbeisi, Ali H.A
(2018)
Effect of micronutrient supplements on nutritional status of infants in Gaza Strip, Palestine.
Doctoral thesis, Universiti Putra Malaysia.
Abstract
Growth faltering is a common form of undernutrition in developing countries.
Micronutrients deficiency including vitamin A, vitamin D, iron, and zinc has been
associated with growth retardation in young children. This study aims to determine
the impact of micronutrient powder supplementation on the nutritional status of infants
in Gaza Strip, Palestine. The study was conducted in two phases. In phase one, a
retrospective cohort study involving 2650 children from five primary health clinics
was carried out to assess the growth patterns from birth to 24 months as to provide
support for timing of micronutrient supplementation for phase two. In phase two, a
prospective parallel randomized controlled trial was conducted with 200 infants aged
six months being randomly selected from two United Nations Relief and Works
Agency (UNRWA) clinics. The infants were randomly assigned into two groups:
control (received National Micronutrient Supplement) and experimental (received
Micronutrients powder for 12 months with National Micronutrient Supplement). The
primary outcomes measured were weight, length, circumferences of head, waist and
mid upper arm, triceps and subscapular skinfolds and hemoglobin of children, while
the secondary outcomes included children’ dietary intakes and child feeding practices
of mothers. Analysis in phase one was based on descriptive statistics, whereas
Student’s t-test and General Linear Model (GLM) for repeated measures were used in
phase two (based on a per protocol analysis). In the process of phase two, 18 and 12
participants dropped out of the experimental and control groups, respectively. The
results of phase one indicated that faltering in length was more pronounced than
weight faltering. From 6 to 24 months, while the prevalence of underweight was
relatively stable (~ 5%), there was a decreasing trend in the prevalence of wasting (10
– 2.8%) but an increasing trend for stunting prevalence (9 – 20.4%). At the end of the
study, the experimental group had a significant increase in all anthropometric
measures except length-for-age and triceps skinfold-for-age z scores. Whereas, the
control group showed a significant increase in weight, length, circumferences of head,waist, and mid upper arm-for-age, and subscapular skinfold-for-age z scores only. In
both groups, a significant increase was observed in most nutrients (except fat and iron
intakes), but a significant decrease in hemoglobin. The overall group effect was
observed in hemoglobin, vitamin D intake, and all anthropometric measures except
body mass index-for-age, head circumference-for-age, and subscapular skinfold-forage
z scores with higher mean in the experimental group as compared to the control
group. The changes in hemoglobin, carbohydrate, protein, and vitamin D intakes, and
most of anthropometric measures (except head circumference-for-age, waist
circumference-for-age, mid upper arm circumference-for-age, and subscapular
skinfold-for-age z scores) showed a significant group by time interaction with a higher
increment in the experimental group as compared with the control group (except
triceps skinfold-for-age z score and protein intake). Moreover, the reduction in
hemoglobin was significantly lower in the experimental group than that in the control
group. At the end of the study, the experimental group had significantly lower
proportions of anemia (11.4% vs. 52.3%, p < 0.001) and stunting (1.2% vs. 18.3%, p
< 0.05) than the control group. In conclusion, micronutrient powder was found to have
beneficial effects on anthropometric and biochemical measures of under-two children
in this study. However, more studies are needed to better understand the contribution
of micronutrient powder supplementation to energy and nutrient intakes. The findings
also suggested that the addition of micronutrient powder supplements to the Ministry
of Health supplementation protocol could improve the nutritional status of young
children.
Download File
Additional Metadata
Actions (login required)
|
View Item |