Nutritional Composition of Cassava Based Recipes and its Implication on the Nutrition Status of Children Aged 6-59 Months in Mtwara District

Nicodemas, Diana (2020) Nutritional Composition of Cassava Based Recipes and its Implication on the Nutrition Status of Children Aged 6-59 Months in Mtwara District. ["eprint_fieldopt_thesis_type_phd" not defined] thesis, The Open University of Tanzania.

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Abstract

The aim of this study was to examine the nutritional composition of cassava based recipes and their implication on nutrition status of children aged 6-59 months. A crosssectional study was carried in six villages of Mtwara Rural District with a sample of 329 children. Food-frequency-questionnaire was used to identify cassava consumption frequency, 24-hours dietary recall identified common cassava meal based recipes. Anthropometric measurements were also taken and dietary diversity established. Chemical analyses was done to determine the nutrient content of different cassava based recipes. Four commonly used recipes were identified namely Coconut-Cassava-Recipe, Plain-Cassava-Recipe, Groundnuts-Cassava-Recipe and Tomato-Cassava-Recipe. Stunting rate (41%), wasting prevalence (7.3%) and underweight prevalence (18.8%) were recorded. The feeding frequency of 2 days in a week was dominant for children of 6-10 months. Among children aged 11-59 months the dominant cassava consumption frequencies in a week were two days (36.8%), three days (20.1%) and six days (27.7%). Overall 87.33% of all children aged 6-59 months had a feeding frequency of 2 days, 3 days or 6 days in a week. However, no significant association (p≥0.05) was established between cassava concumption frequency and prevalence of manultrition. Cyanide contents in all the recipes were within acceptable level of 10ppm, but phytate contents were above the tolerable level of 25 mg/100 g, with the lowest being 78.73mg/100g in CCR. The contribution of cassava to the RDAs of the selected nutrients were 19.4% for iron, 21% for zinc, 0.527% for fat and 4.26% for protein among children aged 6-59 months which is extremely low. The average IDDS of 2.5 obtained in this study was far below the target IDDS of 5 implying poor dietary diversity of consumed food groups. Prevelance of malnultrition generally suggests a interacting effect of several factors.

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