PMID: 9002334Jan 1, 1996Paper

Impact of nutrition education and mega-dose vitamin A supplementation on the health of children in Nepal

Bulletin of the World Health Organization
C R PantR L Tilden

Abstract

The impact on vitamin A deficiency (VAD), wasting malnutrition, and excessive childhood mortality of two alternative approaches-nutrition education and mega-dose capsule distribution (6-12-month-olds: 100,000 IU; 1-5-year-olds: 200,000 IU)-in communities in Nepal are compared. Approximately 40,000 children from 75 locations in seven districts in two ecological settings (lowland and hills) took part in the study and were randomly allocated to intervention cohorts or a control group. At 24 months after the implementation of the project the reduction of risk for xerophthalmia was greater among children whose mothers were able to identify vitamin-A-rich foods (relative risk (RR) = 0.25; 95% confidence interval (CI) = 0.10-0.62) than among the children who received mega-dose capsules (RR = 0.59; 95% CI = 0.41-0.84). The risk of mortality at 2 years was reduced for both the nutrition education (RR = 0.64; 95% Cl = 0.48-0.86) and capsule distribution (RR = 0.57; 95% CI = 0.42-0.77) cohorts. The nutrition education programme was, however, more expensive to deliver than the capsule distribution programme. High rates of participation for children in the supplementation programme were achieved quickly. The nutrition education messages als...Continue Reading

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