Relationship between Mothers’ Nutritional Knowledge in Childcare Practices and the Growth of Children Living in Impoverished Rural Communities.

This study assessed the relationship between maternal nutritional knowledge in childcare practices and growth of children living in impoverished rural communities. This was an analytical cross-sectional study which covered a random sample of 991 children aged 0-36 month(s). Multivariate analysis showed that, after adjusting for potential confounders, there was a significant positive association between the childcare knowledge index and mean HAZ (β=0.10, p=0.005) but was not associated with mean WHZ. The strength of association increased among women of high socioeconomic status (β=0.15, p=0.014) but there was no significant association among women of low socioeconomic status. Increase in maternal childcare knowledge may contribute significantly to child’s nutritional status in Ghana if there is concurrent improvement in socioeconomic circumstances of women living in deprived rural communities.

Effect of Prenatal Zinc Supplementation on Birthweight.

Although iron and zinc deficiencies are known to occur together and also appear to be high in Ghana, a few supplementation studies addressed this concurrently in pregnancy. In a double-blind, randomized controlled trial, 600 pregnant women in Ghana were randomly assigned to receive either a combined supplement of 40 mg of zinc as zinc gluconate and 40 mg of iron as ferrous sulphate or 40 mg of elemental iron as ferrous sulphate. Overall, there was no detectable difference in the mean birthweight between the study groups, although the effect of iron-zinc supplementation on the mean birthweight was masked by a strong interaction between the type of supplement and the iron status of participants [F (1,179)=5.614, p=0.019]. Prenatal iron-zinc supplementation was effective in increasing the mean birthweight among anaemic and iron-deficient women but not among women with elevated iron stores in early pregnancy.