Effect of African leafy vegetables on the micronutrient status of mildly deficient farm-school children in South Africa: a randomized controlled study
van der Hoeven M, Faber M, Osei J, Kruger A, Smuts CM
Public health nutrition · 15 citations
Review labels
Neutral facts our review recorded about how this study was done. They describe method, never whether we like the result.
How it was studied
- Design
- Randomized controlled trial (indexed by PubMed)
- Studied in
- People
- Main outcome
- Health markers and function
- Intake measured by
- Food provided by researchers
Who paid for it
- Funding
- Independent funding
- Government
- European Commission
- University or hospital
- North-West University
Based on 2 listed funder(s).
Publication
- Published
- 2015-07-06 · Public Health Nutr · vol. 19 · issue 5 · pp. 935–945
- Publisher
- Cambridge University Press
- Cited
- 32 citations · more than 89% of similar papers · 2.5× the field average
- References
- 40 works
- Access
- Free to read
- Research areas
- Seed and Plant Biochemistry · Plant Micronutrient Interactions and Effects · Advances in Cucurbitaceae Research
- Keywords
- Micronutrient, Meal, Medicine, Vigna, Vitamin, Randomized controlled trial, Population, Animal science, Retinol, Leafy vegetables, Completely randomized design, Food science, Biology, Internal medicine, Botany, Environmental health
- MeSH
- humans, vegetables, anemia, iron-deficiency, malnutrition, zinc, vitamin a, protoporphyrins, micronutrients, receptors, transferrin, nutrition assessment, prevalence, linear models, energy intake, nutritional status, schools, child, rural population, south africa, ferritins, diet, healthy
5 authors
From ZA
- Marinka van der HoevenNorth-West University
- Mieke FaberSouth African Medical Research Council
- Jennifer OseiNorth-West University
- Annamarie KrugerNorth-West University
- Cornelius Mattheus Smuts · correspondingNorth-West University
Abstract
Objective
A randomized controlled trial was conducted to assess the effect of African leafy vegetable (ALV) consumption on Fe, Zn and vitamin A status in children.
Design
Children were randomly allocated to receive either a 300 g cooked ALV dish and school meal starch (n 86) or the normal school meal (n 81) five times per week for three months. ALV in the dish consisted mainly of Amaranthus cruentus (at least 80 %) and the remainder of Cleome gynandra, Cucurbita maxima or Vigna unguiculata. Nutrient content and consumer acceptance of the ALV dish were also determined.
Setting
North West Province, South Africa.
Subjects
Grade R to grade 4 children (6-12 years old) of two farm schools.
Results
The ALV dish contributed 11·6-15·8 mg Fe and 1·4-3·7 mg Zn. At baseline, prevalence of deficiencies in the intervention group was 16·0 %, 16·3 %, 7·0 % and 75·6 %, respectively, for anaemia (Hb<11·5 g/dl), Fe (serum ferritin<15 µg/l), vitamin A (serum retinol<20 μg/dl) and Zn (serum Zn<65 μg/dl); and in the control group 10·5 %, 18·5 %, 2·5 % and 75·3 %, respectively. No significant estimated intervention effect was found.
Conclusions
This randomized controlled trial showed that ALV were unable to improve serum retinol, serum ferritin or Hb if there are only mild deficiencies present. Furthermore, despite the low Zn status in the study population, ALV consumption did not improve serum Zn concentrations either.
Abstract via Europe PMC. Copyright remains with the authors or publisher.
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