Translating Adoption of Improved Varieties Into Nutritional Impact

Harvard School of Public Health (HSPH)978 enrolled

Overview

The purposes of this study are (1) to determine whether child nutrition-focused adoption encouragement messages focused on Quality Protein Maize (QPM) and the availability of small quantities of QPM seed can be effective at increasing QPM adoption and health outcomes for young children, and (2) to determine whether consumption encouragement messages and techniques (e.g., containers for earmarking) can be effective at increasing QPM targeting to and health outcomes for young children.

Study Type

INTERVENTIONAL

Allocation

RANDOMIZED

Purpose

PREVENTION

Masking

NONE

Enrollment

978

Conditions

Malnutrition

Interventions

Adoption Encouragement TreatmentOTHER

Households in the Adoption Encouragement Treatment received child nutrition focused guidance on the nutritional and agronomic benefits of Quality Protein Maize (QPM) adoption, and the opportunity to order up to 6 kg of QPM seed to plant in their own fields.

Consumption Encouragement TreatmentOTHER

Households in the Consumption Encouragement Treatment received the same guidance as households in the Adoption Encouragement Treatment, as well as additional guidance on the importance of specifically targeting foods made with QPM to young children and tools to help households keep the grain separate and remember to feed QPM-based foods to the young children.

Eligibility

Sex: ALLMin age: 6 MonthsMax age: 35 MonthsHealthy volunteers:

Medical Language ↔ Plain English

Inclusion Criteria: Households with at least one child in the 6-35 month age range in August 2015, who had at least one household member attend a field day demonstrating Quality Protein Maize, and who provided informed consent for participation and data collection were eligible for inclusion. Exclusion Criteria: Households in the study areas that do not have a member who attends a field day demonstrating Quality Protein Maize or who do not have a child in the appropriate age range are excluded from the study. Furthermore, households where the mother or children did not intend on staying in the region for the study duration (until the completion of the endline survey) were excluded from the study. Finally, we excluded participants who do not have access to land for crop cultivation.

Outcomes

Primary Outcomes

Consumption of any QPM by the index child in the last 24 hours

Time frame: 6-7 months

Amount of QPM consumed by the index child in the last 24 hours

Time frame: 6-7 months

Index child's proportion of total maize consumption that was QPM in the last 24 hours

Time frame: 6-7 months

Consumption of any QPM by the index child in the last week

Time frame: 6-7 months

Number of days in the last week that the index child ate any QPM

Time frame: 6-7 months

Number of days in the last week that caregiver cooked a QPM-based food that was primarily for target children

Time frame: 6-7 months

Height-for-age Z-score of index child

Time frame: 6-7 months

Weight-for-height Z-score of index child

Time frame: 6-7 months

Weight-for-age Z-score of index child

Time frame: 6-7 months

Mid-upper arm circumference-for-age Z-score of index child

Time frame: 6-7 months

Insulin-like growth factor I (continuous measurement)

Time frame: 6-7 months

Amount of QPM reserved for home consumption

Time frame: 6-7 months

Data from ClinicalTrials.gov

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Translating Adoption of Improved Varieties Into Nutritional Impact

Overview

Conditions

Interventions

Eligibility

Outcomes

Primary Outcomes

Secondary Outcomes