Paper
Thursday, July 12, 2007
The nutritional status of Nicaraguan adolescent girls: The impact of a 4 year nutrition intervention program
Lisa Pawloski, PhD, Department of Global and Community Health, George Mason University, Fairfax, VA, USA and Jean B. Moore, PhD, RN, School of Nursing, George Mason University, Fairfax, VA, USA.
| Learning Objective #1: The learner will be able to summarize the nutritional status of Nicaraguan adolescent girls and compare their nutritional status with well-nourished girls. |
| Learning Objective #2: The learner will be able explain the effective components of this specific nutrition intervention that may be used for evidence based practice. |
This research examines the impact of a nutrition education program on the nutrition status, self-care practices, and nutrition knowledge of Nicaraguan adolescent girls. This study has implications for evidence-based practice of nutrition and health interventions. The study was performed by a multidisciplinary team of researchers including a nutritional anthropologist, a biostatistician and a pediatric nurse. This abstract will focus on the impact of the nutrition education program on girls’ nutritional status. To determine nutritional status, anthropometric measurements and hemoglobin values were collected from a sample of 182 adolescent girls ages ten to seventeen years living in Managua, Nicaragua. Using a pre-test/post-test design, data were compared prior to and after the nutrition intervention program. Using Mexican-American reference data, statistically significant differences in height-for-age z-scores and weight-for-age z-scores were found (p<.05), such that girls had improved indicators of nutritional status at the end of the four-year nutrition intervention program, but not any earlier. The growth data also reveal implications for catch-up growth among these girls. However, hemoglobin data did not reveal significant improvement which may be due to specific environmental factors and pubertal changes. The findings from the study also revealed significant improvement in nutrition self-care practices and nutrition knowledge which will be described in more depth in another presentation. This research has implications concerning the development of successful adolescent focused nutrition intervention programs in Nicaragua. The results suggest that nutrition education programs in Nicaragua must be more long-term, in order to see effective outcomes in nutritional status. While the described nutrition education program may assist in improving the nutrition status, nutrition behavior, and nutrition knowledge of Nicaraguan girls, no improvement was found regarding hemoglobin status, which suggests the need for a more in-depth analysis of environmental factors within this population.