Effect of food-based nutrition intervention on management of non-communicable diseases among people living with HIV in Busia County Hospital, Kenya

Abstract

Good nutrition optimizes benefits of ART (Antiretroviral therapy) and increases treatment adherence, both prolongs lives of PLHIV (NASCOP, 2014), without proper care and management it exposes them to non-communicable diseases (NCDs). Key objective; to determine the effect of food-based nutrition intervention on the management of NCDs among PLHIV in Busia. The design was experimental using randomized control trial approach. The control group had 30 subjects who were fed on Plumpy‘nut while treatment group had 30 subjects who were fed on Power Porridge (PROLCARMIV), for 60 days. Subjects were purposively selected from the Comprehensive Care Clinic (CCC) in Busia County referral hospital- Kenya, further study subjects were randomly selected using simple random sampling, assigned equally to each group. Data were collected using a structured questionnaire analyzed using Social Package for Statistical Sciences version 26. Prevalence of NCDS; 75.5% hypertension; 15.6% diabetes and 8.9% heart disease; post-intervention BMI for intervention group increased; laboratory analyses; Hb post–intervention results; mean levels were higher in intervention group (M=13.62, SD=2.69) p-value = 0.487 compared to control group (12.69, SD=1.24), p value= 0.471. Random Blood Sugar (RBS) were higher in control group (5.96, SD=1.70), with p value=