Nutrient Intake among Pregnant Teenage Girls Attending Ante-Natal Clinics in Two Health Facilities in Bungoma South District, Western Kenya

Objective: To assess the adequacy of nutrient intake including proteins, energy, calcium, iron, folate and vitamin C and identify the factors associated with nutrient intake.Design: Cross sectional study.Setting: Healthy facility based. Bungoma District Hospital and Bumula Health centre.Subjects: Teenage pregnant girls attending Antenatal Clinic participated after providing written consent, with girls under 18 years being considered as emancipated minors. A standardised interviewer administered Food Frequency Questionnaire was used to asses the dietary intake. Nutrient calculator was used to determine the nutrient intake of the study participant.Results: The intakes of all selected nutrients were significantly lower than the RDA. Protein intake was significantly associated with Education (OR: 0.537; 95% CI: 0.318 – 0.907), income (OR: 0.049; 95% CI: 0.919 – 0.128) and perceived food shortage (OR: 0.617; 95% CI: 0.389 – 0.890). Energy intake was significantly associated with income (p=0.007, OR: 2.103; 95%CI: 1.225 – 3.608). Iron intake was significantly associated with perceived food shortage (OR: 2.548; 95% CI: 1.632 – 3.980). Hookworm affected calcium intake (OR: 3.074; 95% CI: 1.089 – 8.698) and malaria parasites affected folate intake (OR: 0.355; 95% CI: 0.226 – 0.557). Those with hookworm were 3 times more likely to have inadequate calcium intake as compared to those without.Conclusion: All the nutrients selected were lower than the Required Dietary Allowance. Level of education, income, Hookworm and malaria affected intake of various nutrients

Cognitive deficits following exposure to pneumococcal meningitis: an event-related potential study

Background Pneumococcal meningitis (PM) is a severe and life-threatening disease that is associated with cognitive impairment including learning difficulties, cognitive slowness, short-term memory deficits and poor academic performance. There are limited data on cognitive outcomes following exposure to PM from Africa mainly due to lack of culturally appropriate tools. We report cognitive processes of exposed children as measured by auditory and visual event-related potentials. Methods Sixty-five children (32 male, mean 8.4 years, SD 3.0 years) aged between 4-15 years with a history of PM and an age-matched control group of 93 children (46 male; mean 8.4 years, SD 2.7 years) were recruited from a well-demarcated study area in Kilifi. In the present study, both baseline to peak and peak-to-peak amplitude differences are reported. Results Children with a history of pneumococcal meningitis had significantly longer auditory P1 and P3a latencies and smaller P1 amplitudes compared to unexposed children. In the visual paradigm, children with PM seemingly lacked a novelty P3a component around 350 ms where control children had a maximum, and showed a lack of stimulus differentiation at Nc. Further, children with exposure to PM had smaller peak to peak amplitude (N2-P1) compared to unexposed children. Conclusion The results suggest that children with a history of PM process novelty differently than do unexposed children, with slower latencies and reduced or absent components. This pattern suggests poorer auditory attention and/or cognitive slowness and poorer visual attention orienting, possibly due to disruption in the functions of the lateral prefrontal and superior temporal cortices. ERPs may be useful for assessment of the development of perceptual-cognitive functions in post brain-injury in African children by providing an alternate way of assessing cognitive development in patient groups for whom more typical standardized neuropsychological assessments are unavailabl