Otaniyenuwa E Obarisiagbon1,2
,
Ogbonna Janet Chizoba2
For correspondence:- Otaniyenuwa Obarisiagbon Email: otaniyenuwa.obarisiagbon@uniben.edu
Published: 07 December 2021
Citation: Obarisiagbon OE, Chizoba OJ. Assessment of dietary pattern of primary school pupils in Egbaen Community in Edo State. Trop J Med Dent Pract 2021; 2(4):85-91 doi: 10.47227/tjmdp.v2i4.1
© 2021 The author(s).
This is an Open Access article that uses a funding model which does not charge readers or their institutions for access and distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0) and the Budapest Open Access Initiative (http://www.budapestopenaccessinitiative.org/read), which permit unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly credited..
Background: Understanding dietary patterns in the study of the diet-disease relationship are crucial for designing dietary behaviour interventions. This study aimed to assess the dietary pattern as well as determine associations between dietary patterns and sociodemographic characteristics among primary school children (9–15 years) in a community Edo State.
Methods: This was a descriptive cross-sectional study of 400 pupils of a selected primary school in Egbaen community, Benin City. Data was obtained using an interviewer-administered questionnaire and analysed. Dietary pattern was assessed on the basis of eating frequency, the constituent of food and adequacy of food. A Chi-square test was used to identify statistically significant associations between variables. A p-value of ≤ 0.05 was considered significant.
Results: There were more males 217 (54.3%) than females with a mean age of 9.0 ± 2.0 years. All the respondents 400 (100%) ate at least once a day with the majority 290 (72.5%) eating three times a day. Majority of the respondents 284 (71%) had a good dietary pattern. Age of the pupils (p=0.007) and the size of the household (P=0.037) were significantly associated with dietary pattern of the respondents.
Conclusion: The dietary pattern among in the pupils of Egbaen community was good. However, parents should monitor their wards ensuring they have adequate food, do not skip meals and eat an adequate diet.
