Skip to content
Home
About Us
Resources
Profiles Metrics
Authors Directory
Institutions Directory
Top Authors
Top Institutions
Top Sponsors
AI Digest
Contact Us
Menu
Home
About Us
Resources
Profiles Metrics
Authors Directory
Institutions Directory
Top Authors
Top Institutions
Top Sponsors
AI Digest
Contact Us
Home
About Us
Resources
Profiles Metrics
Authors Directory
Institutions Directory
Top Authors
Top Institutions
Top Sponsors
AI Digest
Contact Us
Menu
Home
About Us
Resources
Profiles Metrics
Authors Directory
Institutions Directory
Top Authors
Top Institutions
Top Sponsors
AI Digest
Contact Us
Publication Details
AFRICAN RESEARCH NEXUS
SHINING A SPOTLIGHT ON AFRICAN RESEARCH
medicine
Effects of a participatory agriculture and nutrition education project on child growth in northern Malawi
Public Health Nutrition, Volume 14, No. 8, Year 2011
Notification
URL copied to clipboard!
Description
Objective To investigate whether children in households involved in a participatory agriculture and nutrition intervention had improved growth compared to children in matched comparable households and whether the level of involvement and length of time in the project had an effect on child growth.Design A prospective quasi-experimental study comparing baseline and follow-up data in 'intervention- villages with matched subjects in 'comparison- villages. Mixed model analyses were conducted on standardized child growth scores (weight- and height-for-age Z-scores), controlling for child age and testing for effects of length of time and intensity of village involvement in the intervention.Setting A participatory agriculture and nutrition project (the Soils, Food and Healthy Communities (SFHC) project) was initiated by Ekwendeni Hospital aimed at improving child nutritional status with smallholder farmers in a rural area in northern Malawi. Agricultural interventions involved intercropping legumes and visits from farmer researchers, while nutrition education involved home visits and group meetings.Subjects Participants in intervention villages were self-selected, and control participants were matched by age and household food security status of the child. Over a 6-year period, nine surveys were conducted, taking 3838 height and weight measures of children under the age of 3 years.Results There was an improvement over initial conditions of up to 0·6 in weight-for-age Z-score (WAZ; from -0·4 (sd 0·5) to 0·3 (sd 0·4)) for children in the longest involved villages, and an improvement over initial conditions of 0·8 in WAZ for children in the most intensely involved villages (from -0·6 (sd 0·4) to 0·2 (sd 0·4)).Conclusions Long-term efforts to improve child nutrition through participatory agricultural interventions had a significant effect on child growth. © 2010 The Authors.
Authors & Co-Authors
Bezner Kerr, Rachel N.
Canada, London
Western University
Berti, Peter
Canada, Ottawa
Healthbridge
Shumba, Lizzie
Malawi, Ekwendeni
Ekwendeni Hospital
Statistics
Citations: 114
Authors: 3
Affiliations: 3
Identifiers
Doi:
10.1017/S1368980010002545
e-ISSN:
14752727
Research Areas
Food Security
Health System And Policy
Maternal And Child Health
Study Design
Randomised Control Trial
Cross Sectional Study
Cohort Study
Quasi Experimental Study
Study Locations
Malawi