Caregivers’ Nutritional Knowledge, Income and Children’s Intake across Three Ecological Zones in Ghana. The ENAM Study

Aaron K. Christian, University of Ghana and University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
Esi Colecraft, University of Ghana
Grace Marquis, McGill University
Owuraku Sakyi-Dawson, University of Ghana
Anna Lartey, University of Ghana
Lorna Michael Butler, Iowa State University

Interventions that focus on increasing caregivers’ knowledge and increase contributions to food expenditure through increased income may improve child nutrition and overall household food security. The ENAM project was a micro-credit intervention aimed at improving caregiver incomes and children’s animal source food (ASF) intakes. At baseline and four successive follow-ups, data on caregivers’ nutritional knowledge, children’s animal source foods (ASF) intake and caregivers’ incomes were collected for 179 intervention and 287 control households. No group difference existed at baseline. At the final time point, Intervention caregivers had higher knowledge scores (37.2 ± 1.8 vs. 22.1 ± 0.7; p<0.001) compared to control caregivers and their children were consuming more diverse ASF (6.3 ± 0.2 vs. 4.6 ± 0.1; p<0.001). Participation in the ENAM project increased caregiver nutritional knowledge, however among intervention caregivers’ knowledge did not predict children’s ASF intake. Keywords: Animal Source Foods, Nutrition Knowledge