Impact of a Community-based Intervention Program on Nutritional Status of Children Aged Under 5 Years With
Rajan Paudel1, Yogendra Bahadur Gurung2, Bijay Khatri3
1Central Department of Public Health, Institute of Medicine, Tribhuvan University, Kathmandu, Nepal; Unit of Health Sciences, Faculty of Social Sciences, Tampere University, Tampere, Finland.
Objective:
To identify the impact of community-based nutritional intervention among children with undernutrition in Nepal.
Design:
Quasi-experimental time series.
Setting:
Three villages in the rural Terai region with a majority marginalized ethnic population.
Participants:
Seventy-five children with undernutrition between 6 and 59 months.
Interventions:
Community-based package included super flour, milk, growth monitoring, nutrition education, and counseling conducted from September, 2016 to March, 2017.
Main Outcome:
Change in nutritional status.
Analysis:
We compared differences in pretest and posttest measurements using paired t test and repeated-measures analysis of various identified changes in z-scores. We applied random-effects panel data regression to evaluate the effect of intervention and exposure time.
Results:
The mean z-scores of weight-for-age (underweight) and weight-for-height (wasting) continued to increase until 6 months of intervention, except for the height-for-age (stunting). On average, every month of the nutritional intervention led to an improvement in weight-for-age z-scores by 0.49 units (coefficient, 0.49 [95% coefficient intervals (CI), 0.47-0.50]), weight-for-height z-scores by 0.41 units (coefficient, 0.41 [95% CI, 0.38-0.44]) and height-for-age z-scores by 0.31 units (coefficient, 0.31 [95% CI, 0.29-0.33]) after adjusting the sociodemographic and health-related variables.
Conclusions And Implications:
Community-based nutrition interventions that use local resources effectively reduce undernutrition. Similar interventions can be promoted in low-resource settings.
Related Concept Videos
01:30Community Based Intervention
Foundations of Community Mental Health Programs
Central to the success of community-based interventions is the...
01:26Methods Of Healthcare Delivery System
Managed Care System:
The managed care system is designed to control the cost while maintaining the quality of care. The patient's care from admission to discharge is planned by the primary care provider or the case manager, also known as the gatekeeper. In a managed care system, the number of care providers is...
01:30Primary Healthcare Services
In 1978, international leaders convened in Alma-Ata, Kazakhstan, for what would be a pivotal event in global health. The Alma-Ata Declaration was the first to call...