Abstract:
Malnutrition remains one of the most common causes of morbidity and mortality among
children throughout the world.The study aimed at evaluating the effect of Moringa oleifera
leaf powder in improving the nutritional status of children 6 to24 months of age in Arusha
Municipality. A total of 140 children were enrolled and randomly allocated to two
treatments where by 64 children received moringa leaf powder porridge and 76 children
received maize porridge and a randomized control design was used. Anthropometry and
morbidity data were collected during monthly household visits for three consecutive
months. LSD was used for the comparison of means; unpaired t-test was used for the
comparison of two groups. Mean weight-for-age Z-scores (WAZ) for infants in treatment
and control group increased from -4.1 and -3.6 at baseline to -2.2 and -3.3 at the end.
Likewise, the mean weight-for-length z-scores (WLZ) for infants in treatment and control
group increased from -3.4 and -3.4 at baseline to -1.1 and 3.2 at the end respectively. Mean
length-for-age z-scores (LAZ) for infants in treatment group increased from -3.2 at baseline
to -2.6 end of intervention in contrast to infants in control group which declined from -2.0 at
baseline to -2.4 at the end. At baseline 13% and 21% of children in the treatment group had
diarrhoea and malaria, respectively but the prevalence decreased significantly to 1.4% and
0.7%, respectively at the end of the intervention. Mean haemoglobin concentration of the
children increased from 7.4 to 11.5 for the treatment group while in the control group it
increased from 7.1 to 7.3. In this regard, it may be concluded that M.oleifera leaf powder
had significant positive effect on child nutritional status and morbidity. The use of
M.oleifera leaf powder is recommended for addressing the problem of undernutrition in
Tanzania.
