Malnutrition
Conditions
Keywords
Biomarkers, Child Nutrition Sciences, Economics, Behavioral
Brief summary
The purposes of this study are (1) to determine whether child nutrition-focused adoption encouragement messages focused on Quality Protein Maize (QPM) and the availability of small quantities of QPM seed can be effective at increasing QPM adoption and health outcomes for young children, and (2) to determine whether consumption encouragement messages and techniques (e.g., containers for earmarking) can be effective at increasing QPM targeting to and health outcomes for young children.
Interventions
OTHERAdoption Encouragement Treatment
Households in the Adoption Encouragement Treatment received child nutrition focused guidance on the nutritional and agronomic benefits of Quality Protein Maize (QPM) adoption, and the opportunity to order up to 6 kg of QPM seed to plant in their own fields.
OTHERConsumption Encouragement Treatment
Households in the Consumption Encouragement Treatment received the same guidance as households in the Adoption Encouragement Treatment, as well as additional guidance on the importance of specifically targeting foods made with QPM to young children and tools to help households keep the grain separate and remember to feed QPM-based foods to the young children.
Sponsors
CIMMYT International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center
Ethiopian Public Health Institute
Agricultural Technology Adoption Initiative
Harvard School of Public Health (HSPH)
Study design
Allocation
RANDOMIZED
Intervention model
FACTORIAL
Primary purpose
PREVENTION
Masking
NONE
Eligibility
Sex/Gender
ALL
Age
6 Months to 35 Months
Healthy volunteers
Yes
Inclusion criteria
Households with at least one child in the 6-35 month age range in August 2015, who had at least one household member attend a field day demonstrating Quality Protein Maize, and who provided informed consent for participation and data collection were eligible for inclusion.
Exclusion criteria
Households in the study areas that do not have a member who attends a field day demonstrating Quality Protein Maize or who do not have a child in the appropriate age range are excluded from the study. Furthermore, households where the mother or children did not intend on staying in the region for the study duration (until the completion of the endline survey) were excluded from the study. Finally, we excluded participants who do not have access to land for crop cultivation.
Design outcomes
Primary
| Measure | Time frame |
|---|---|
| Change in Weight-for-age Z-score of index child | 6-7 months |
| Change in Weight-for-height Z-score of index child | 6-7 months |
| Change in Mid-upper arm circumference-for-age Z-score of index child | 6-7 months |
| Index child's proportion of total maize consumption that was QPM in the last 24 hours | 6-7 months |
| Consumption of any QPM by the index child in the last 24 hours | 6-7 months |
| Amount of QPM consumed by the index child in the last 24 hours | 6-7 months |
| Consumption of any QPM by the index child in the last week | 6-7 months |
| Number of days in the last week that the index child ate any QPM | 6-7 months |
| Number of days in the last week that caregiver cooked a QPM-based food that was primarily for target children | 6-7 months |
| Height-for-age Z-score of index child | 6-7 months |
| Weight-for-height Z-score of index child | 6-7 months |
| Weight-for-age Z-score of index child | 6-7 months |
| Mid-upper arm circumference-for-age Z-score of index child | 6-7 months |
| Insulin-like growth factor I (continuous measurement) | 6-7 months |
| Amount of QPM reserved for home consumption | 6-7 months |
| Hectares of QPM planted | 6-7 months |
| Serum transthyretin | 6-7 months |
| Change in Height-for-age Z-score of index child | 6-7 months |
Secondary
| Measure | Time frame |
|---|---|
| Serum tryptophan | 6-7 months |
| Serum lysine | 6-7 months |
Outcome results
None listed