Podcast: Effects of nutritional interventions to increase nutritional status in children living in urban slums in low- and middle-income countries

Cochrane Reviews cover a wide range of issues relating to good nutrition for children and adults and the collection were added to in June 2019 by a reviews dedicated to issues faced by young children living in urban slums in low- and middle-income countries. We asked the lead author, Sophie Goudet from the Centre for Global Health and Human Development at Loughborough University in the UK, to tell us about the need for the review and what it found.UN-Habitat estimates that at least one billion people live in urban slums, which are places in cities without adequate access to health care, clean water, and sanitation. More than 90% of these slums are in low- and middle-income nations, with the residents usually living in poverty, with little food security. One consequence of an inadequate diet is that people will have very short stature for their age, called growth stunting. It ’s associated with greater susceptibility to infection, cognitive and behavioural problems, and lower adult work performance and earnings.Nutritional interventions might be one way to prevent this, and our review is the first comprehensive and systematic assessment of the impact of these interventions on the growth of young children who live in urban slums.We included 15 studies, involving more than 9000 children under five and approaching 4000 pregnant women. A range of interventions were tested, including maternal nutrition education, nutrient supplementation of mothers, infants, and children, such as...
Source: Cochrane News and Events - Category: Information Technology Authors: Source Type: news