Patterns of food consumption and nutritional status of preschool children in two high grown tea estates of Sri Lanka

Introduction: Protein energy malnutrition continues to be a serious health concern in Sri Lanka and the country’s estate sector is worst affected. Understanding the local patterns of food consumption will be beneficial before planning programmes of nutritional intervention.

 

Method: This study was conducted among preschool children of two tea estates in hill country. Data in relation to food types and their frequency of consumption was collected from their parents using a self-administered questionnaire in their mother tongue, Tamil.

 

Results: Out of the total 131 enrolled in the study, 108 children with complete data were further evaluated. The majority (68.5%) was non-vegetarians. The next commonest pattern of food consumption was pesctarianism with a percentage of 20.4 % (22 subjects). 8.33% of the children were lacto-ovo vegetarians. There was only one child each in the other three categories, lacto- vegetarian, ovo- vegetarian and pure vegetarian giving percentages of 0.93% each. In both Thalawakelle and Haputhale estates, the majority of the children were underweight i.e.68% and 92% respectively. The prevalence of stunting was at 32% and 40%. 48.5% of children were found to be anaemic.

 

Conclusions: Contrary to common belief the majority of the children consumed a non-vegetarian diet. In spite of this, nutritional problems are common in the studied population.