Dietary magnesium intakes among women of reproductive age in Ghana-A comparison of two dietary analysis programs

Background: Despite the importance of magnesium to health and most importantly to women of reproductive age who are entering pregnancy, very few surveys have investigated the magnesium status of women of reproductive age, particularly in Africa. Additionally, the software and programs used to analyze dietary intake vary across countries in the region.

Objective: To assess the dietary magnesium intake of women of reproductive age in Ghana and to compare the estimate of magnesium intake obtained from two commonly used dietary analysis programs.

Methods: We collected magnesium intake from 63 Ghanaian women using a semiquantitative 150-item food frequency questionnaire. Dietary data was analyzed using two different dietary analysis programs, Nutrient Data Software for Research (NDSR) and the Elizabeth Stewart Hands and Associates (ESHA) Food Processor Nutrition Analysis software. We used the Wilcoxon signed rank test to compare the mean differences between the two dietary programs.

Results: There were significant differences between the average dietary magnesium intake calculated by the two dietary programs, with ESHA estimating higher magnesium intake than NDSR (M±SE; ESHA: 200 ± 12 mg/day; NDSR: 168 ± 11 mg/day; p<0. 05). The ESHA database included some ethnic foods and was flexible in terms of searching for food items which we found to be more accurate in assessing the magnesium intake of women in Ghana. Using the ESHA software, 84% of the study women had intake below the recommended dietary allowances (RDA) of 320mg/day.

Conclusion: It is possible that the ESHA software provided an accurate estimate of magnesium in this population because it included specific ethnic foods. Concerted efforts such as magnesium supplementation and nutrition education should be considered to improve the magnesium intake of women of reproductive age in Ghana.