{"title":"Assessing nutrient inadequacies and influence of socio-economic characteristics on diet quality of the Mbororo minority women in Northwest Cameroon","authors":"P. Ebile, Hycenth Tim Ndah, J. Wünsche","doi":"10.1108/NFS-07-2020-0265","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"Purpose Limited data are available in facilitating nutritional interventions in developing countries. The objective of this study is to assess the mean dietary diversity score (DDS)of Mbororo minority women in the Northwest region of Cameroon. Design/methodology/approach The study used the random sampling technique within the Mbororo minority communities (Adorates). A questionnaire on dietary diversity, including 461 Mbororo women, provided information on food consumed using the 24-h dietary recall method. Findings Various socio-cultural and economic characteristics of the Mbororo women affected the nutrient level of their diet. Moreover, starchy staples, vitamin-A rich vegetables and palm oil and milk and milk products were consumed by more than half of the Mbororo community. Family herd size showed a positive influence on the dietary habit of the Mbororo population. The mean DDS significantly increased (p = 0.001), as herd size increased from below 50 (3.9 ± 1.1) to above 100 (4.8 ± 1.2). Practical implications Most of the diet consumed by the Mbororo women were low in iron, making them susceptible to nutrition anemia. The diet of the Aku women was more deficient in micronutrients than their Jaafun counterpart. These results indicate suitable areas of intervention for any nutrition program that targets the Mbororo minority group of Northwest Cameron. Social implications DDS can be used in assessing and classifying the population in rural communities according to the deficiencies in micronutrients of their diet. Originality/value The use of DDS to assess the nutrient quality of diets is frequently used to evaluate the prevalence of micronutrient deficiencies but has never been applied to Mbororo minority women.","PeriodicalId":19376,"journal":{"name":"Nutrition & Food Science","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":1.0000,"publicationDate":"2021-06-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1108/NFS-07-2020-0265","citationCount":"3","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Nutrition & Food Science","FirstCategoryId":"1085","ListUrlMain":"https://doi.org/10.1108/NFS-07-2020-0265","RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":null,"ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"Q4","JCRName":"FOOD SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 3
Abstract
Purpose Limited data are available in facilitating nutritional interventions in developing countries. The objective of this study is to assess the mean dietary diversity score (DDS)of Mbororo minority women in the Northwest region of Cameroon. Design/methodology/approach The study used the random sampling technique within the Mbororo minority communities (Adorates). A questionnaire on dietary diversity, including 461 Mbororo women, provided information on food consumed using the 24-h dietary recall method. Findings Various socio-cultural and economic characteristics of the Mbororo women affected the nutrient level of their diet. Moreover, starchy staples, vitamin-A rich vegetables and palm oil and milk and milk products were consumed by more than half of the Mbororo community. Family herd size showed a positive influence on the dietary habit of the Mbororo population. The mean DDS significantly increased (p = 0.001), as herd size increased from below 50 (3.9 ± 1.1) to above 100 (4.8 ± 1.2). Practical implications Most of the diet consumed by the Mbororo women were low in iron, making them susceptible to nutrition anemia. The diet of the Aku women was more deficient in micronutrients than their Jaafun counterpart. These results indicate suitable areas of intervention for any nutrition program that targets the Mbororo minority group of Northwest Cameron. Social implications DDS can be used in assessing and classifying the population in rural communities according to the deficiencies in micronutrients of their diet. Originality/value The use of DDS to assess the nutrient quality of diets is frequently used to evaluate the prevalence of micronutrient deficiencies but has never been applied to Mbororo minority women.
期刊介绍:
Nutrition & Food Science* (NFS) is an international, double blind peer-reviewed journal offering accessible and comprehensive coverage of food, beverage and nutrition research. The journal draws out the practical and social applications of research, demonstrates best practice through applied research and case studies and showcases innovative or controversial practices and points of view. The journal is an invaluable resource to inform individuals, organisations and the public on modern thinking, research and attitudes to food science and nutrition. NFS welcomes empirical and applied research, viewpoint papers, conceptual and technical papers, case studies, meta-analysis studies, literature reviews and general reviews which take a scientific approach to the following topics: -Attitudes to food and nutrition -Healthy eating/ nutritional public health initiatives, policies and legislation -Clinical and community nutrition and health (including public health and multiple or complex co-morbidities) -Nutrition in different cultural and ethnic groups -Nutrition during pregnancy, lactation, childhood, and young adult years -Nutrition for adults and older people -Nutrition in the workplace -Nutrition in lower and middle income countries (incl. comparisons with higher income countries) -Food science and technology, including food processing and microbiological quality -Genetically engineered foods -Food safety / quality, including chemical, physical and microbiological analysis of how these aspects effect health or nutritional quality of foodstuffs