Original Research

Application of the Health Belief Model to Teach Complementary Feeding Messages in Ethiopia. In Ethiopia many women do not practice appropriate complementary feeding (CF). The Health Belief Model (HBM) asserts that change in behavior is determined after consideration of severity, benefit, and barriers to change. This study examined the effectiveness of 3 months of HBM-based […]

Improving newborn care practices through home visits: lessons from Malawi, Nepal, Bangladesh, and Uganda. BACKGROUND: Nearly all newborn deaths occur in low- or middle-income countries. Many of these deaths could be prevented through promotion and provision of newborn care practices such as thermal care, early and exclusive breastfeeding, and hygienic cord care. Home visit programmes promoting […]

Programmatic effects of a large-scale multiple-micronutrient supplementation trial in Indonesia: using community facilitators as intermediaries for behavior change. BACKGROUND: Clinical trials can serve as an opportunity gateway for enhanced health benefits to the target population, above and beyond the specific intervention being tested. OBJECTIVE: The Supplementation with Multiple Micronutrients Intervention Trial (SUMMIT), a randomized, controlled clinical trial […]

Determinants of high vitamin A supplementation coverage among pre-school children in Mali: the National Nutrition Weeks experience. OBJECTIVES: To assess vitamin A supplementation (VAS) coverage of children aged 6-59 months and the factors that favour or limit this coverage during the National Nutrition Weeks in Mali. DESIGN: Cross-sectional study. Interviews about demographic factors and children’s adherence to […]

A program impact pathway analysis identifies critical steps in the implementation and utilization of a behavior change communication intervention promoting infant and child feeding practices in Bangladesh. Mapping pathways of how interventions are implemented and utilized enables contextually grounded interpretation of results, differentiates poor design from poor implementation, and identifies factors that might influence the […]

Senegalese grandmothers promote improved maternal and child nutrition practices: the guardians of tradition are not averse to change. The vast majority of community nutrition/health programs in developing countries focus on women of reproductive age (WRA) and a few explicitly involve senior women, or grandmothers. In Senegal, as in many other places, older, experienced women play […]

Fighting malnutrition from hospital to home. At a Children’s Nutrition Unit in Bangladesh, a screening process has been developed to determine the type of care which should be provided to malnourished children. Malnourished children receive an initial period of full-time medical attention if they exhibit apathy and anorexia, dehydration, severe anemia, life-threatening infection, hypoglycemia, hypothermia, […]

Day-care management of children with severe malnutrition in an urban health clinic in Dhaka, Bangladesh. Management of severely malnourished children with associated complications relies on hospital-based treatment. Implementation of a standardized protocol at the Dhaka Hospital, ICDDR,B reduced case fatality approximately 50%. We developed and prospectively evaluated a day-care clinic approach that provided antibiotics, micronutrients […]

Development of a point-of-use fortification technology for delivery of micronutrients in Honduras. BACKGROUND: Micronutrient deficiencies continue to afflict children rural populations around the world. A micronutrient delivery vehicle (MDV) was developed as a point-of-use technology for fortification of meals for school-age children beneficiaries of the Healthy Schools Program (HSP) in Honduras. RESULTS: MDV combines micronutrient powder through […]

Barriers to access for severe acute malnutrition treatment services in Pakistan and Ethiopia: a comparative qualitative analysis. OBJECTIVE: To understand and compare the primary barriers households face when accessing treatment for cases of childhood severe acute malnutrition (SAM) in different cultural settings with different types of implementing agencies. DESIGN: The study presents a comparative qualitative analysis of […]