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Socio-demographic factors and household food insecurity are considered to influence the nutritional status of older women. The rapidly growing elderly population in Africa is a concern particularly in sustaining their health and nutritional status. In spite of this, there is a scarcity of information in older Zambian women and this study aimed to assess the socio-demographic factors, nutritional status and household food insecurity status of older women in rural Zambian communities. This cross-sectional study was conducted in Twatasha compound of Kitwe and Ndeke community of Ndola. The socio-demographic characteristics, anthropometric measurements, dietary intakes and household food security were evaluated in a convenience sample of 153 older women (≥ 50 years) through the Household Food Insecurity Access Scale (HFIAS). IBM SPSS version 26 was used for descriptive (frequencies, means and standard deviations, and medians with interquartile frequencies) and inferential (bivariate and Spearman correlations) statistical analyses. The socio-demographic characteristics showed that almost all (98.7%) of the participants had other members of the family residing with them. Most participants (57%) had attained primary school education, 19% had secondary education and 5% had college education. Almost half (49%) of the participants did not report their employment status and 36% reported to be unemployed. Over-nutrition was most prevalent (37.3% overweight and 39.8% obese) while 20.9 % and 2.0% of the respondents were normal weight and underweight respectively. The median (25th percentile; 75th percentile) dietary intakes showed inadequate intakes for most nutrients, except for carbohydrates (170 g [133;225]). The total fat intake represented 14% of total energy intake. The majority (86.0%) of the participants were identified as severely food insecure while only 6.0% were food secure. The majority of the participants (80-90%) used at least seven out of the nine behavioural responses to food insecurity. The findings show resource-poor and severely food insecure communities. We recommended urgent interventions to improve access to healthy foods (such as home gardening projects) and promote healthy dietary habits (including nutrition education). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objectives: To determine the nutrition knowledge and nutritional status of primary school children attending a purposively selected school in rural QwaQwa. Setting: A purposively selected public school (n = 540) in QwaQwa. Subjects: A convenience sample of all 142 school pupils, aged from nine to thirteen years. Outcome measures: The measuring instruments included a nutrition knowledge questionnaire to determine the current nutrition knowledge, and a 24-hour recall to determine food and nutrient intakes. Anthropometric measurements included weight and height, measured using standard methodologies. Results: The mean age of the respondents was 11.2 years, and all had deficient intakes of all the nutrients, except for protein, carbohydrates and thiamine. However, 53.1%, 17.1% and 14.3% of the respondents did not meet 100% of EAR for protein, carbohydrates and thiamine respectively. The anthropometric results indicated that 2.8°h of the total group of respondents was severely stunted, and that 11.3% were stunted. The BMI-for-age indicated that 12.0% were overweight, and more so among the girls (1 5.7°h) than the boys (8.3%). The respondents showed average nutrition knowledge in the majority of the questions. Conclusions: This study observed malnutrition and average nutrition knowledge, with many gaps relating to aspects, such as the role of the various food groups in the diet and safe hygiene practices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background. The United Nation's Children Fund (UNICEF) has indicated that urban poverty is primarily found in squatter settlements. At present, 13.5% of all South African households Live in informal settlements. The main hypothesis for this empirical study was that micromechanisms would not negatively influence food, nutrition and health of residents in an informal settlement in the Vaal Triangle, South Africa. This hypothesis was tested empirically against the UNICEF framework of the immediate, underlying and basic causes of malnutrition. The purpose of this study was to establish a situation analysis of children and women before designing any intervention. Objectives. The objectives covered in this paper include Phases I and II of the project, namely planning of the project and determining the demographic and health profile of the sample as part of a situation analysis. Study design. This is a community participatory project. After a strategic participatory planning workshop with stakeholders, a plan of operation document, guiding all field undertakings, was drawn up (Phase 1), followed by a cross-sectional baseline survey (Phase It), situation analysis (Phase III), and implementation of community-based intervention studies (Phase IV). Impact measurement will follow in Phase V. Methods. After the planning meeting and obtaining consent, a pretested, structured demographic and health questionnaire was used to obtain data from 357 randomly selected households in an informal settlement. Data were statistically analysed for means and standard deviations. Results. The findings of the workshop evaluation indicated that 100% of the participants (n=34) agreed that a need existed for this project, 74% (n=24) understood the relevance, and 64% (n=22) realized the importance for sustainable community development. In the baseline survey, 89% of the respondents lived in zinc shacks with two rooms or less (32.2%), three or four rooms (41.5%) or four rooms or more (26.3%). The household size was six people or more (33%), five people (18.5%), four people (21.3%) and three people or less (27.2%). The unemployment rate was 94.2% for respondents and 80.1% for their partners. The majority of households(42.6%) had a monthly income of CR500 (US$71). The major health problems observed were chronic coughing (42%) and headaches (50.4%). Death of a chiLd under 5 years of age was reported by 27.7% of respondents, of which 34.8% were stillborn, over the previous 5 years. Conclusions. These findings confirmed that poverty and household food insecurity were major problems. As such, these results form the basis for planning and implementing sustainable community-based intervention projects to promote public health nutrition in the Vaal Triangle, South Africa. It is, however, important to ensure community participation during all phases of the project to ensure sustainability. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]