Efficacy of Multi-Nutrient Supplementation on Improving Nutritional and Hemoglobin Status of Physical Education Students, University of Mysore

Abstract

The present study was designed to comprise of three phases as follows; Phase I-Baseline information which included selection of the participants and preliminary assessments i.e. socio-demographic, economic, dietary intake, food habits and Hemoglobin status. This was then followed by phase II which involved development of the nutritional supplement and its’ sensory and acceptability analysis. The final phase was phase III which entailed supplementation intervention for the study group participants. This phase included; deworming of the participants, pre-intervention nutritional status assessment (anthropometric and haemoglobin status assessment) and actual supplementation followed by post-intervention assessment. The study was conducted on 12 male students from the department of studies in physical education and sports sciences, university of Mysore. First, a population of 100 students from both undergraduate and post-graduate classes was assessed for nutritional status by analyzing their blood samples for hemoglobin (Hb) levels and taking their anthropometric measurements. Then a sample of 12 male students belonging to the age group 21-25 years were randomly selected from the post graduate class for the clinical trial intervention. All the participants took part in two different games each day, with one game taking a period of 2 hours in the morning and the other game 2 hours in the evening. Keywords: Hemoglobin status, nutritional supplement, multi-nutrient supplementation, physical education students