Student Blogger for Global Nutrition Council at ASN’s Scientific Sessions and Annual Meeting at EB 2016
By: Sheela Sinharoy, MPH
A symposium titled Program Effectiveness for Addressing Undernutrition during the First 1,000 Days provided attendees with examples of programs in Bangladesh, Guatemala, and Burundi.
In Bangladesh, the Rang-Din Nutrition Study tested lipid-based nutrient supplements (LNS) in a community-based program. According to presenter Kay Dewey, the study found that giving LNS to mothers prenatally reduced the prevalence of stunting and increased the birth weight, head circumference, and body mass index (BMI) in infants at birth. LNS and multiple micronutrient powders (MNP) for children were also associated with better developmental and cognitive outcomes. Dr. Dewey noted that the impact on child anthropometry was much larger in food insecure households, so future programs may want to target based on this and other criteria.
Moving from Asia to Africa, Marie Ruel presented results from an impact evaluation of a food-assisted integrated health and nutrition program in Burundi. The program gave food rations to mothers and children and also provided behavior change communication. Interestingly, the nutrition situation in Burundi deteriorated sharply during the program period, but decreases were less severe in the treatment groups. For example, while the prevalence of stunting increased dramatically in the control group, the prevalence in the treatment group remained essentially flat. Thus, although the treatment group did not improve, the results suggest that the intervention protected families who otherwise would have been vulnerable to economic shocks.
Guatemala is another country with a very high prevalence of chronic undernutrition, and Deanna Olney presented results from a study of a similar food assistance program. The impact of the program was greatest among those who received a full family food ration plus an individual ration of corn-soy blend. In these households, mothers had significantly higher mean BMIs, children had a lower prevalence of stunting, and both mothers and children had a lower prevalence of anemia. However, there were no significant impacts on child underweight, wasting, or language or motor development.
The differing impacts of various programs was the impetus for a talk by Per Ashorn, who discussed pathways of impact for fetal growth, linear growth, and cognitive function. He explained that the pathways for linear, ponderal, and head growth are partially different, and there are possibly partially different pathways to childhood length gain and brain function. This suggests a need for multipronged interventions targeting pathways including infection, nutrition, and inflammation, as well as a variety of outcome measures to assess the interventions’ impact.
Of course, cost is an important – and often challenging – issue when planning interventions. The final talk of the symposium was given by Steve Vosti, who explained that programs must balance need, acceptability, use, and both short-term and persistent demand in order to achieve impact. These and many other factors, such as the costs of manufacturing supplements in country and the proportion of locally available ingredients being used, can affect the cost of an intervention. In addition to deciding on the most appropriate intervention to meet a need, practitioners must take these factors into account when planning their programs.