Child Malnutrition
Conditions
Brief summary
Children in extreme poverty lack adequate care and face increased health risks. The earlier poverty strikes in the developmental process, the more deleterious and long-lasting its effects. There is, however, growing evidence that early interventions can prevent the negative consequences. Such interventions are effective, particularly when they are of high quality, organized at home and parents are involved. Recently, baseline assessment of developmental and nutritional status of SOS children and children in extreme poverty in Jimma region of South-West Ethiopia revealed that these children have developmental problems in language, motor, social-emotional skills and nutritional status. The impact of play-oriented stimulation activities integrated into the existing SOS basic program, on developmental outcomes, has never been investigated in this context. The main objective of the study is, therefore, to evaluate the impact of play-oriented stimulation integrated into the basic SOS program on the developmental outcomes of children living with foster families. This was done by comparing the intervention children with their age-matched children (control), not receiving the stimulation package. It was hypothesized that this package would significantly improve the developmental skills of these children.
Interventions
OTHERbasic services
The age-matched control children received the basic services such as family-home, food, clothing, health care, protection and education. However, they were not provided with the play-based developmental stimulation.
OTHERthe play-based developmental stimulation
Children in the intervention group received basic services such as family-home, food, clothing, health care, protection and education for older children. In addition, there received play-based developmental stimulation integrated into the services.
Sponsors
Jimma University
VLIR-UOS (Vlaamse Interuniversitaire Raad).
Hasselt University
Study design
Allocation
RANDOMIZED
Intervention model
PARALLEL
Masking
SINGLE (Investigator)
Eligibility
Sex/Gender
ALL
Age
3 Months to 59 Months
Healthy volunteers
Yes
Inclusion criteria
* Children who were selected by the SOS children's village as lacking parental care and receive basic services; * Children living in Jimma town; * Children from 3 months to 59 months of age.
Exclusion criteria
* Children with observable physical disabilities which hinders mobility; * Children with severe mental retardation; * Children with discernable hearing and visual impairments.
Design outcomes
Primary
| Measure | Time frame | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Social-emotional outcome | baseline | Ages and Stages Questionnaires: Social Emotional (ASQ: SE) was used to measure social-emotional development of the children |
| language outcome | baseline | Denver II-Jimma was used to test language outcome and performance ratio was calculated for analysis |
| language outcoome | 6 months | Denver II-Jimma was used to test language outcome and performance ratio was calculated for analysis |
| Personal-social outcome | baseline | Denver II-Jimma was used to test personal-social outcome and performance ratio was calculated for analysis |
| fine motor outcome | baseline | Denver II-Jimma was used to test fine motor outcome and performance ratio was calculated for analysis |
| gross motor outcome | baseline | Denver II-Jimma was used to test gross motor outcome and performance ratio was calculated for analysis |
Secondary
| Measure | Time frame | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Height | baseline | For children under two years of age, a length measuring board on a flat table was used. For children under two years of age, a length measuring board on a flat table was used. The height of a child above two years of age was measured by using a portable stadiometer. |
| weight | baseline | A child's weight was measured by using a calibrated electronic weighing scale. |
Countries
Belgium, Ethiopia
Outcome results
None listed