Socio-demographic and nutritional assessment of the elderly Yorubas in Nigeria.

Three hundred and five Nigerian elderly from the Yoruba tribe of both rural and urban areas in the south Western zone of Nigeria were studied. The objective was to assess their nutritional status and identify indicators of nutritional vulnerability. Using a structured household questionnaire, anthropometric measurement and checklist of nutritional vulnerability, nutritional status was assessed and classified into various levels of vulnerability.

Effect of feeding maize/legume mixtures on biochemical indices in rats.

Protein-energy malnutrition is one of the major public health problems in developing countries of the world due to prevailing socio-economic problems. This study aimed to observe the effect of formulated complementary blends on biochemical parameters of rats. Extruded complementary blends from maize fortified with cowpea or soybean at a level of 35% and 25% respectively were fed to 4 groups of rats for 28 days.

The nutrient content and effectiveness of rice flour and maize flour based oral rehydration solutions.

The effectiveness of rice flour and maize flour based oral rehydration solution (ORS) in treating mild and moderate dehydration was studied among 88 children aged to 6 to 42 months at the Oni Memorial Children Hospital, Ibadan. In this randomized clinical trial, fifty children were treated with rice-based ORS while fifty-three received the maize-based ORS, over a four hour period. There was clinical improvement in the signs of dehydration with a significant increase in body weights and a significant fall in the packed cell volume following the administration of the two preparations.