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Meal Consumption Patterns Among Recipient of the School Nutrition Programme in Trinidad and Tobago
Author(s) -
Francis Marlon,
Nichols Selby
Publication year - 2016
Publication title -
the faseb journal
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.709
H-Index - 277
eISSN - 1530-6860
pISSN - 0892-6638
DOI - 10.1096/fasebj.30.1_supplement.674.15
Subject(s) - christian ministry , meal , receipt , consumption (sociology) , medicine , environmental health , demography , business , sociology , political science , social science , accounting , pathology , law
The National Dietary Services Limited makes available over 90,000 lunches to primary and secondary schools in Trinidad and Tobago. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the factors influence meal consumption among recipients. Methods 3,120 school lunches were randomly assigned to participant attending 52 randomly selected primary schools in Trinidad and Tobago. Participants in receipt of the specially marked boxes were advised by the class teachers to return the boxed to designation stations when there were finished with their meal. The remnants of the meals were analyses and recorded by quality officers specially trained for the investigation. We used a cutoff of 75% of more of meals consume as our cutoff for adequacy of consumption of that particular meal component. Approvals was granted by the Ministry of Education to conduct this survey. Participation by the students was voluntary. Results 2009 or 65% of specially marked boxes were returned for analyses. Overall, we found significant linear trends in the adequacy of consumption of foods from animals and staples with age. Male were significant more likely that their female counterparts to have adequate consumption of staples. Vegetables were generally poorly consumed. Conclusion Meals uptakes were influenced by age, sex and the nature of the meal served.