Effectiveness of Locally Produced Ready to Use Supplementary Foods on the Prevention of Stunting in children aged 6-23 months: A Community based trial from Pakistan

Br J Nutr. 2023 Nov 28:1-20. doi: 10.1017/S0007114523002702. Online ahead of print.ABSTRACTUndernutrition is a major public health problem in developing countries. Around 40.2% of children are stunted in Pakistan. This longitudinal study aimed to assess the effectiveness of locally produced ready-to-use supplementary foods in the prevention of stunting by detecting change in of children in intervention vs. control arm against the 2006 WHO growth reference. A community based non-randomised cluster-controlled trial was conducted from January 2018 to December 2020 in the district of Kurram, KP, Pakistan. A total of 80 clusters (each cluster comprising ≈ 250-300 households) were defined in the catchment population of 12-health facilities. Children aged 6-18 months were recruited n=1680. The intervention included a daily ration of 50g-locally produced Ready-to-Use-Supplementary Food (Wawa-Mum). The main outcome of this study was a change in LAZ vs WHO growth standards. Comparison between the interventions was by t-test and ANOVA. Cox proportional hazard models were used to assess the association between stunting occurrence and the utilization of locally produced supplement.Out of the total 1680, 51.1% (n=859) were male. Mean age 13.9 months (S.D +-4.4). At baseline, 36.9%(n=618) were stunted. In the intervention group mean LAZ Score significantly increased from -1.13(2.2 SD) at baseline to -0.93(1.8 SD) at six-month follow-up(p-value 0.01) compared to the control group. The inci...
Source: The British Journal of Nutrition - Category: Nutrition Authors: Source Type: research