Child Weight
Conditions
Keywords
nutrition, child weight, undernourishment, mentor mother, South Africa
Brief summary
Malnourished children and babies with birth weights under 2500 grams are at high risk for negative outcomes over their lifespan. Philani, a paraprofessional home-visiting program, was mounted in neighborhoods in three townships in Cape Town, South Africa, from 2002 to 2004 to improve nutritional outcomes. One mentor mother was recruited from each of 37 neighborhoods. Mentor mothers were trained to conduct home visits to weigh children and to support mothers to problem-solve life challenges, especially around nutrition. Households were randomly assigned on a 2-to-1 ratio to the Philani program or to a standard care condition. Children were evaluated over a 1-year period. The investigators hypothesized that children in the intervention would gain more weight than children in the control.
Interventions
BEHAVIORALPhilani nutrition intervention program (mentor mothers)
Behavioral intervention was offered through mentor mothers. Mentors were mothers in community who were selected by because they were doing well. They were trained to conduct home visits, up to 16 times over one year period, ranging from 20 minutes to 2 hours. Mentor mothers worked to improve health of mother and their child and build social support in neighborhood.
Sponsors
Philani Child Health and Nutrition Project, Khayelitsha, Cape Town, South Africa
University of California, Los Angeles
Study design
Allocation
RANDOMIZED
Intervention model
PARALLEL
Primary purpose
TREATMENT
Masking
NONE
Eligibility
Sex/Gender
FEMALE
Healthy volunteers
No
Inclusion criteria
* mother or caregiver * with child under 5 years of age and malnourished (malnourished if less than 2 standard deviations below the World Health Organization normative mean weight for the child's age
Exclusion criteria
* no malnourished children under care * malnourished children not living in household
Design outcomes
Primary
| Measure | Time frame |
|---|---|
| weight-for-age z-score | one year |
Secondary
| Measure | Time frame |
|---|---|
| weight in kilograms | one year |
Countries
South Africa
Outcome results
None listed