Human Nutrition and Dietetics

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    How knowledgeable are Nigerian female students of reproductive age about Iron and Folate
    (Springer Nature, 2024) Folasire, O. F.; Afolabi, V. I.
    Background: Iron and folate deficiency remains a global public health problem, especially among females of reproductive age. This study evaluated the nutrition knowledge of and consumption pattern of foods rich in iron-folate among final year female undergraduate students, as a formative assessment to plan nutrition intervention. Methods: A cross-sectional study, used simple random sampling to recruit 180 final-year undergraduate female students at the University of Ibadan, Nigeria. Level of knowledge was categorized into adequate and inadequate based on the mean knowledge score 11±6.0. A modified FFQ was used to measure dietary pattern, examined and classified as having a frequent (at least three times per week) or infrequent (less than three times per week) consumption pattern. Data analysis was with SPSS at p 0.05). Results: About 52.2% of the respondents got information on iron-rich food, while 38.9% of the respondents got information on folate-rich foods from health professionals/hospitals and internet. Mean knowledge score was 11±6.0. About 55.7% of respondents had inadequate knowledge of iron-folate, while 43.0%had adequate knowledge about iron-and folate-. Most (88.9%) of the respondents infrequently consumed green leafy vegetables, nuts and seeds (81.7%), legumes (88.9%) while, 57.8%, 55.0%, 50.6% frequently consumed meats, poultry and dairy products respectively. Largely, there was no significant relationship between the nutrition knowledge and the consumption of iron folate rich foods (p>0.05).However, inadequate knowledge of iron and folate-rich foods was significantly related with infrequent intakes of green leafy vegetables (X2=8.508, p=0.004). Conclusion: Knowledge of iron and folate among respondents was poor. Dietary consumption of iron-folate - rich foods was also generally poor except for poultry, meats and meat products. Hence, there is need for targeted nutrition intervention in this group of WRA.