Effect of green leafy vegetables powder on anaemia and vitamin-A status of Ghanaian school children

BACKGROUND: Nutritional anaemia and vitamin-A deficiency are public health issues confronting Ghanaian children. Their adverse effects are likely pronounced during the dry season when green leafy vegetables, rich-sources of iron and provitamin-A are scarce. This study assessed the effect of dried green leafy vegetables on anaemia and vitamin-A status of Ghanaian school children. METHOD: This was 3 months pretest, posttest nutrition intervention study. Children 4–9 years were randomized to receive or not receive supplement. High Performance Liquid Chromatography and Haemocue hemoglobinometer were used to determine vitamin-A and haemoglobin concentrations respectively. Malaria-parasitaemia and helminthes were examined by Giemsa-staining and Kato-Katz respectively. Nutritional status was assessed by anthropometry. Student’s t-test was used to establish significant differences between groups. RESULTS: At baseline, the mean haemoglobin concentrations of control and supplemental were 116.9 ± 9.9 g/l and 117.6 ± 12.7 g/l respectively. At end-line, it was 121.9 ± 13.5 g/l for supplemental and 113.4 ± 8.5 g/l for control, significant at p = 0.001. At baseline prevalence of anaemia was 37.3 and 41.5% in control and supplemental respectively. At end-line it was 33.3% in supplemental against 57.5% in control, significant at p = 0.024. At baseline mean retinol concentrations were 16.79 ± 8.74 μg/dl and 16.97 ± 7.74 μg/dl for control and supplemental respectively. Mean retinol concentrations for control and supplemental were 24.35 ± 5.50 μg/dl and 26.96 ± 6.86 μg/dl respectively at end-line. At end-line 60% of control against 64.0% of supplemental had low vitamin-A status. At end-line, anaemic-control had mean retinol concentration of 23.78 ± 5.23 μg/dl and anaemic-supplemental had 27.46 ± 7.28 μg/dl. Prevalence of low vitamin-A status was 64.3 and 84.2% in anaemic-control and anaemic-supplemental respectively at baseline but it became 23.1 and 21.1% respectively, at end-line. The mean haemoglobin concentrations of anaemic-control and supplemental were 105.7 ± 7.5 g/l and 113.6 ± 13.6 g/l respectively at end-line. The change in prevalence of anaemia between the anaemic groups was 12.2%, significant at p = 0.042. CONCLUSION: Consumption of green leafy vegetables powder increased mean haemoglobin and retinol concentrations of the study participants. It had the potential to minimize prevalence of anaemia and low vitamin-A status of study participants.