Introduction: Nutritional status of children is influenced by dietary. Better dietary diversity helps ensure intake of essential nutrients especially for growing school-aged children. The aim of this study was to assess both the nutritional status of school children in Ibanda and Nyantende health districts, as well as the level of consumption and of dietary diversity score in their household.
Methods: in a cluster cross-sectional survey, the present study examined nutritional status, through weight-for-age (WA), height-for-age (HA) and weight-for-height (WH) and dietary diversity score of 750 school children aged 6 to 12 years old. Dietary diversity scores were assessed based on frequency of consumption of individual food items categorized into 7 individual food groups.
Dietary diversity was appraised with two types of indices: a dietary diversity score (DDS) based on the number of food categories consumed over a week and a weekly food frequency score (WFFS) which also takes into account the frequency of food intake
Dietary diversity scores were assessed based on frequency of consumption of individual food items categorized into 7 individual food groups.
Results: Chronic malnutrition is still a public health problem in school-aged children in all studied children, 35.9% of children aged 6 to 12 years were stunted (H/A <- 2ET) of which 16.4% in the severe form (H/A <-3ET); 2.0% were thinner for their height, so they were suffering from acute malnutrition (BMI <-2ET); 5.3% were moderately underweight (thinner for their age (W/A <-2ET).
The stunted growth of the child was related to maternal illiteracy (p <0.05); girls were thinner for their height than boys (p <0.05).
Overall, 7% of households had a food consumption limit and 19.6% had a non-diversified diet. Food consumption and dietary diversity scores were better in urban than in rural areas (p <0.000). Both indices were significantly associated with maternal age and the mother's high level of education (p <0.05).
Conclusion: The prevalence of different types of malnutrition confirms the existence of real public health problems.
Socio-demographic characteristics have significant influence on food consumption and dietary diversity among households in our study field.
Objective: To determine the seroprevalence of viral hepatitis B and C and HIV among blood donors in the Isangi Rural Health Zone.
Methods: Cross-sectional descriptive study carried out in the rural health zone of Isangi from 1 January 2010 to 31 December 2017 involving 814 blood donors. The parameters of interest were sociodemographic characteristics and biological results (HIV, HBV, HCV, syphilis) using rapid diagnostic tests.
Results: 814 blood donors (family and volunteers) were collected, including 725 males (89%) and 89 females (11%). The majority of donors belonged to the age groups of 17-25 years (44%) and 26-35 (32%) and was family donors (90%). The prevalence was 1.7%; 3.2℅; 0.85℅; 3.5% for syphilis, HBV, HIV and HCV, respectively. No epidemiological parameters studied were significantly associated with the seropositivity of the antigens sought (p <0.05).
Conclusion: Seroprevalences of infectious markers were relatively low among blood donors in Isangi. These seroprevalences would be underestimated because of the use of rapid diagnostic tests. But they would reflect a difference in epidemiology of infectious agents between rural and urban areas. Improvement of transfusion safety in rural areas should be directed towards the abandonment of family donation, the promotion of voluntary donation, the organization of donors into "clubs" and their loyalty.