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1 – 3 of 3Diwa Pandey, Mohammed H. Buzgeia, Epuru Suneetha, Hana Ahmed, Honida Abd El Rahaman Al Gani, Hajir Abd El Rahman Al Kadam and Nawal Juma Elariby
Breakfast skipping by children, with its varying global prevalence and associated factors, is well documented to adversely affect their health, cognitive ability, academic…
Abstract
Purpose
Breakfast skipping by children, with its varying global prevalence and associated factors, is well documented to adversely affect their health, cognitive ability, academic performance and anthropometric status. Libya, a country with a young population base, has limited information on breakfast skipping prevalence among its young citizens as well as its compounding factors unique to the country. The purpose of this paper is to investigate the breakfast skipping pattern among Benghazi primary school children.
Design/methodology/approach
The paper's approach is to use a cross sectional study among 386 primary school children (196 males and 190 females) using an interviewer‐administered structured questionnaire. The enrolment exclusion criteria were a pre‐existing chronic disease or a food allergy or food intolerance or any acute illness.
Findings
Breakfast skipping during weekdays (38.6 per cent, n=149), reduced drastically on weekends (1.0 per cent, n=4); 10.7 per cent subjects skipped breakfast daily (mean 2.5 + 1.3 days). Absence of hunger and lack of time to eat or prepare breakfast were cited as main barriers in its regular consumption. Bread and milk were the most commonly consumed breakfast foods. Certain groups of regular breakfast eating subjects consumed higher (p < 0.05) dietary thiamine and iron than their breakfast skipping counterparts and also better fulfilled their daily requirements for these nutrients. Parental breakfast eating habits influenced their children's breakfast eating pattern.
Practical implications
Efforts, including better time management, are required to inculcate a positive breakfast eating attitude among Benghazi primary school children. Their parents need to act as better role models by adopting healthy breakfast eating practices themselves.
Originality/value
The paper shows that breakfast skipping among Benghazi primary school children is a nutritional problem of grave concern, warranting a public health intervention.
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Diwa Pandey, Mohammed H. Buzgeia, Safaa A.E. Badr, Faiza Gheith Senussi, Haifa Ibrahim El‐Mokasabi and Aisha Mohammed El‐Shahomi
The purpose of this paper is to identify the extent of actual malnutrition and its risk among cancer patients receiving radiotherapy and/or chemotherapy in the Libyan city of…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to identify the extent of actual malnutrition and its risk among cancer patients receiving radiotherapy and/or chemotherapy in the Libyan city of Benghazi.
Design/methodology/approach
A cross‐sectional nutritional assessment study using the patient‐generated subjective global assessment (PG‐SGA) was carried out on 200 (91 males and 109 females) cancer patients undergoing chemotherapy and/or radiotherapy.
Findings
A total of 25 per cent of the subjects were severely malnourished while 73.5 per cent were either at risk of malnutrition or suspected to be malnourished. Almost all (99.5 per cent) needed some degree of intervention (critical in nature for 83.5 per cent). Family income and physical activity were associated with nutritional status (p<0.05). Body Mass Index alone is an insensitive criterion for identifying malnutrition among such patients. All the sections and subsections of the PG‐SGA had a statistically significant positively correlation with its total score (r=0.51‐0.96, p<0.05). Dieticians played a very limited role in patient nutritional care.
Practical implications
It is suggested that dieticians should play a more participatory and prominent role in a multidisciplinary team involved in patient nutritional care. The PG‐SGA can help identify areas where tailor made strategies to counteract specific malnutrition or its risk can be planned, implemented and monitored.
Originality/value
There exists a considerable prevalence of malnutrition among Benghazi cancer patients undergoing chemotherapy and/or radiotherapy, most of whom need critical intervention.
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Chris-Valentine OGAR Eneji, Nkanu Usang Onnoghen, Joseph Odama Acha and Juliana Bebuo Diwa
The purpose of this study is to examine the extent of climate change awareness among the rural farmers of Northern Cross River state, investigate the gender role analyzes of some…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this study is to examine the extent of climate change awareness among the rural farmers of Northern Cross River state, investigate the gender role analyzes of some daily routine activities carried out by these rural farmers, ascertain the difference in workload burden of the impacts of climate change between men and women, identify the strategies adopted by these rural farmers to mitigate the effects of climate change in their agricultural activities and investigate the roles Environmental Education (EE) can play in helping the rural farmers to design and adopt sustainable adaptation and mitigation strategies to reduce or completely eradicate their vulnerability to climate change effects.
Design/methodology/approach
The research design adopted for this study is the cross-sectional survey method. Five research questions guided the study. Two sets of instruments were used for data collection, a sample of 1,258 respondents (0.1%) were selected for the study. The researchers personally administered the instruments and collected the same back, two instruments were not properly filled, so they were rejected.
Findings
The finding of the study revealed that rural farmers have some level of climate change awareness, which they got from radio, newspapers, awareness campaigns, flyers, billboards, among others. Six out of the nine strategies listed were adopted by the rural farmers to mitigate climate change effects among these rural farmers. There is a significant difference in gender workload burden between women and male in the area, the result is positively skewed toward women, implying that the burden of workload for women increased over those of men. The result also shows that EE can influence their attitude toward climate change through awareness creation, knowledge provisions and also encourage members participation in climate change effect mitigation, prevention and adaptation.
Research limitations/implications
With this result, EE can be used as a tool for the creation of knowledge, awareness, attitude and encourage the participation of these rural farmers toward mitigating and prevention climate change effects among these rural farmers. It was recommended among others that deliberate policies should be designed to make EE help create the needed awareness on climate change, beginning from the causes, effects and mitigation strategies among rural farmers in their community.
Practical implications
Already, most Environmental Educators have been trained, the government should design and formulate practical policies to use them as extension agent on climate change effort to go to these rural communities and create the needed awareness, knowledge, skills and attitude to help them combat climate change effects including trees and cover crops planting and also re-introducing the use of irrigation agriculture in these farming communities.
Social implications
With the creation of awareness, social groups and individuals can also make a social investment from these activities and also improve their social capitals, thereby reducing social burdens and improving their living conditions within the rural settings.
Originality/value
This research is an original research paper from the effort. the purpose is to assess the extent of climate change awareness level and how the effects of climate change increase or reduces the burden of gender workload among rural farmers and the strategies which can be used by these rural farmers to prevent, mitigate and adapt to climate change effects and the roles EE can play. This study has an original value in the sense that in the course of the study, the study hardly saw articles on these specific variables in whole research, hence the resolve to assess these variables.
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