PLOS ONE · 8 authors, 4 centres
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A cross-sectional study of 63 Ghanaian women of reproductive age found that the majority had dietary magnesium intakes below the recommended dietary allowance of 320 mg/day, and that two commonly used dietary analysis programs (ESHA and NDSR) produced significantly different magnesium intake estimates.
This cross-sectional study assessed dietary magnesium intake among 63 women of reproductive age in Ghana using a 150-item semiquantitative food frequency questionnaire. Intake was analyzed using two software programs: ESHA Food Processor and NDSR. Using ESHA, 84% of participants fell below the RDA of 320 mg/day. The authors noted that ESHA's inclusion of ethnic West African foods likely contributed to its higher and potentially more accurate estimates. Study limitations include potential recall bias inherent to FFQ methods, absence of a national Ghanaian food composition database, and a small, regionally limited sample. The findings highlight widespread inadequate magnesium intake among Ghanaian women of reproductive age and underscore the importance of country-specific food composition databases.
