Prevalence of Dehydration among School-Aged Children in Eastern Province, Zambia and Sikasso, Mali with an Analysis of Hydration and Cognition Measures Public
Price, Kaleb Anderson (2014)
Published
Abstract
Abstract
Prevalence of Dehydration among School-Aged Children in Eastern Province, Zambia and Sikasso, Mali with an Analysis of Hydration and Cognition Measures
By Kaleb Price
Background: Dehydration has serious detrimental effects on physical and cognitive health in children. This study was conducted to estimate prevalence of dehydration among African children as well as analyze methods for measuring hydration and cognition.
Methods: We obtained urine specimens on 110 children in Mali and 293 children in Zambia and measured urine specific gravity and urine color, both measures of hydration status. We also administered a battery of cognitive tasks to assess cognitive performance among these children.
Results: We found that 78% of children in Mali and 93% of children in Zambia were dehydrated during the day. We also found strong correlation between our two measures of hydration status (r2=0.73-0.90). We found only weak correlation between cognitive tasks (r2=-0.02-0.45). Boys and girls performed similarly on the cognitive tasks.
Conclusion: Our data showed that a large number of children in Eastern and Southern Africa are dehydrated during the school day. Because of the detrimental effect dehydration has on cognitive performance, efforts must be made to provide safe water to school children. We also found that urine color approximates urine specific gravity and can be used to cheaply and easily assess hydration status when more advanced methods are unavailable.
Table of Contents
Table of Contents
Chapter 1: Background...1
Chapter 2: Manuscript...8
Introduction...8
Methods...10
Results...18
Discussion...24
References...31
Tables...36
Chapter 3: Summary and Future Directions...48
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