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A home nutritional rehabilitation programme in a Peruvian peri-urban shanty town (pueblo joven)
D Fernández-Concha1, R H Gilman, J B Gilman
1Associación Benéfica PRISMA, Lima, Perú.
Insights
Home-based nutritional rehabilitation (HNR) effectively treated malnourished children in Lima, Peru. This low-cost, reproducible program showed comparable results to traditional methods, offering a viable solution for underserved communities.
Area of Science:
- Public Health
- Pediatrics
- International Health
Background:
- Severe malnutrition identified in children aged 0-3 years in a Lima, Peru peri-urban shanty town.
- Limited access to traditional healthcare facilities in impoverished urban areas.
Purpose of the Study:
- To develop and evaluate a home-based nutritional rehabilitation (HNR) program for severely malnourished children.
- To assess the feasibility and effectiveness of utilizing community health staff for HNR.
Main Methods:
- Implemented a HNR program focusing on maternal education, home-based therapies (oral rehydration), growth monitoring, and building trust.
- Program involved 54 children aged 0-3 years in a peri-urban setting.
Main Results:
- One death and four (7%) hospital admissions among 54 HNR children.
- Morbidity and mortality rates were comparable to traditional programs in other developing countries.
Conclusions:
- Home-based nutritional rehabilitation (HNR) is an inexpensive and reproducible intervention.
- HNR is effective for treating malnourished children in peri-urban slums in developing countries.
Abstract:
In a peri-urban shanty town located in Lima, Peru, a nutritional census of children 0-3 years old revealed a number of second and third degree malnourished children. In order to treat these children a home-based nutritional rehabilitation (HNR) programme was developed utilizing available community health staff. The programme focused on individual and group maternal education, home-based therapy such as oral rehydration solution for diarrhoea, periodic growth monitoring, and a strong trust relationship between mother and health professional. There was one death and four (7%) hospital admissions among the 54 HNR children. These morbidity and mortality rates were similar to those achieved by more traditional programmes in Bangladesh, India, and Guatemala. NHR can provide an inexpensive, reproducible method useful for the treatment of malnourished 'third world' children in peri-urban slums.