Effects of Nutrition Education among Pregnant Women using Fruits and Vegetables for the achievement of MDG5 in Odogbolu LGA, Ogun State (Published)
Background: Nutrition education being a component of health education is propitious to create awareness on how to source, prepare, combine and use food resources for promoting good health among all groups of human beings; especially pregnant women who need adequate nutrition for their physiological needs and improve the health of both the mother and fetus. Studies have suggested that women have low dietary intake of fruits and vegetables. The Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) are a framework globally agreed for measuring development, progress, and poverty reduction through focusing efforts on achieving significant measureable improvement in people’s lives. One of the components of MDG5 is nutrition in pregnancy; this component is the main focus of this study. Method: a quasi-experimental study for quantitative method adopting pre-and post test control experimental analysis was used while 194 pregnant women were purposively selected from 11 randomly selected antenatal clinics in Odogbolu local government area to participate. The nutrition intervention was for 3 months. FGD together with structured-validated questionnaire administered before and after the intervention were used to collect data. ANCOVA was used to test the two hypotheses at 0.05 alpha level.Result: There were significant effects of the intervention on the knowledge (F (2.174) = 1554.466, P <.05) and attitude (F (2.134) = 19.866, P <.05) of the women on fruits and vegetables consumption. The findings revealed a positive effect of the intervention; the participants were relatively aware of the importance of fruit and vegetables consumption in pregnancy after the intervention. Conclusion: The nutrition education intervention appears to have changed the attitude of pregnant women after the post test evaluation. Pregnant women apparently consumed more fruits and vegetables than they were doing before the intervention. Therefore, intensive health education should continuously be given to pregnant women on the value of fruit and vegetable.
Keywords: Education, Intervention, Nutrition, Pregnant Women, Vegetables
Demographic Differences in the Knowledge of Breast Cancer among Women in Ebonyi State, Nigeria (Published)
Breast cancer is the most common of all cancers and is the leading cause of cancer deaths in women worldwide, a condition that may be predicated upon by lack of knowledge about fundamental regimen necessary for cancer prevention. The study was therefore designed to determine demographic differences in the knowledge of breast cancer among women in Ebonyi State, Nigeria. The sample of the study comprised 1,845 women drawn through the multistage sampling procedure. A 40-item questionnaire was used to elicit information on knowledge symptoms, risk factors, prevention methods and treatment options of cancer. Descriptive statistic of percentage was used to answer the research question and inferential statistic of chi-square was used to test the entire hypotheses formulated for the study at an alpha level of 0.05. Knowledge of breast cancer was found to be on the average (48.72%); differed by age with younger women (35-44years 56.43%) reporting higher knowledge of breast cancer than the older ones (45-54 years 46.03%); women with post-secondary education (67.66%) had higher knowledge than those with secondary (60.16%), primary (49.03%) and non-formal education (39.01%); urban women (55.61%) were more knowledgeable than rural women (47.81%). Chi-square analysis indicated that significant association existed between level of education and knowledge of breast cancer. However, no significant association was found between age and location of residence. It was concluded that breast cancer knowledge of women in Ebonyi State is on the average and associated significantly with education, but not with age and location of residence of the women. Consequently, it is recommended that breast cancer education should be used to improve the women’s knowledge of the disease, especially for those with non-formal education, older women and those in the rural areas through interventions by government and non-governmental agencies and through curriculum revision for schools
Keywords: Age, Breast cancer, Education, Knowledge, Location, Risk Factors, Women