Determinants of Under-Nutrition among Children under Five Years of Age in Ethiopia
Kassie, Gashu Workneh, Demeke Lakew Workie, BMC Public Health, Vol. 20, Issue 1, p. 399, March 2020
- Nutrition and Health Systems
Research Articles
Responding to the high rate of child undernutrition in Ethiopia, this study analyzed data from Ethiopia’s 2016 Demographic and Health Survey to identify factors associated with undernutrition, including maternal education, source of drinking water, anemic status of the child, and others. The authors conclude that interventions seeking to reduce child undernutrition should focus on improving household wealth and food security, educating mothers and their spouses, improving maternal nutritional status, and increasing mothers' health care access.
Developing and Implementing Quality Assessment Tools for MNCH in Malawi
A Network for Improving Quality of Care for Maternal, Newborn and Child Health, March 2021
Events
The Malawian Ministry of Health developed quality improvement assessment tools to help health facilities report on adapted Quality of Care standards for maternal and newborn health and pediatric care. Ministry officials share lessons learned in developing and using the tools. This is a webinar.
Development of the Project-Level Women’s Empowerment in Agriculture Index (Pro-WEAI)
Malaapit, Hazel, Agnes Quisumbing, Ruth Meinzen-Dick, et al. World Development, Vol. 122. October 2019
- Food Systems
Research Articles
Researchers recently adapted the widely used Women’s Empowerment in Agriculture Index (WEAI) to develop a measurement tool that can help agricultural development projects better monitor and measure their impact. The tool restructures and adds indicators to measure project impact across groups and over time. Pro-WEAI is still under development and researchers are continuing to add to and improve on the survey methodology.
Development and Validation of a Health and Nutrition Module for the Project‐Level Women's Empowerment in Agriculture Index (pro‐WEAI+HN)
Heckert, Jessica, Elena M. Martinez, Greg Seymour, et al. Maternal & Child Nutrition, December 2022
- Social and Behavior Change and Gender
Research Articles
Adding a health- and nutrition-related agency module to the project-level Women's Empowerment in Agriculture Index (pro-WEAI) produced seven distinct indicators. Using these indicators could strengthen the evidence base about how nutrition-sensitive agricultural development programs enhance women's empowerment to improve health and nutrition.
DHS Survey Design: Modules (FAQ)
The DHS Program, n.d
- Monitoring, Evaluation, and Learning
Reports and Tools
Several topic-specific questionnaire modules can be added to the standard DHS questionnaire modules. These include those focusing on accident and injury, adult and maternal mortality, disability, domestic violence, female genital cutting, fistula, the food insecurity experience scale, newborn care, non-communicable diseases, out-of-pocket health expenditures, and maternal health care. This document summarizes the benefits and limitations of doing so.
Diet Assessment Decision Tool
USAID Advancing Nutrition, June 2022
- Monitoring, Evaluation, and Learning
Reports and Tools
The tool helps practitioners better understand dietary patterns and nutrient intake, which are critical to designing, monitoring, and evaluating efforts to improve diets. Diet assessments and related interventions should focus on children 6–23 months of age and pregnant women, as evidence shows these groups are vulnerable to malnutrition.
Diet Quality Over Time Is Associated with Better Development in Rural Nepali Children
Miller, Miller, Laurie C., Sumanta Neupane, Neena Joshi, et al. Journal of Maternal and Child Nutrition, e12964, February 2020
- Early Childhood Development
- Monitoring, Evaluation, and Learning
Research Articles
To better understand the links between diet quality and developmental status in resource-poor settings, the authors of this study explored different aspects of dietary quality and child development among children in a western Nepali community. Analysis of dietary diversity, animal-source food, and “Ages and Stages Questionnaire” scores led researchers to recommend that programs targeting child development also consider home environmental quality along with long-term diet quality.
Dietary Diversity and Undernutrition in Children Aged 6–23 Months in Sub-Saharan Africa
Aboagye, Richard Gyan, Abdul-Aziz Seidu, Bright Opoku Ahinkorah, et al. Nutrients, September 2021
- Nutrition and Health Systems
Research Articles
Given the role that dietary diversity plays in the health status of children, implementing nutrition-specific interventions and strengthening existing interventions to improve infant and young child feeding practices is particularly important in countries where the prevalence of adequate minimum dietary diversity is low and undernutrition is high.
Dietquality.org: New Data and Tools for 50+ Countries Unveiled
Ag2Nut, Global Alliance for Improved Nutrition, June 2023
- Food Systems
Events
The website presents new diet data and country-adapted data collection tools for 56 countries. It also offers an indicator calculator to help users analyze their own data. This is a webinar.
Different Combinations of Behavior Change Interventions and Frequencies of Interpersonal Contacts Are Associated with Infant and Young Child Feeding Practices in Bangladesh, Ethiopia, and Vietnam
Kim, Sunny S., Phuong Hong Nguyen, Lan Mai Tran, et al. Current Developments in Nutrition, Vol. 4, February 2020
- Nutrition and Health Systems
- Social and Behavior Change and Gender
Research Articles
This study examined endline survey data from intervention evaluations in Bangladesh, Ethiopia, and Vietnam to assess how different combinations of social and behavior change communication interventions and varying levels of exposure to the interventions affected infant and young child feeding (IYCF) practices. The authors found that 1) the level of exposure to interventions mattered, but the effects varied among mothers across the three countries, and 2) the combination of interventions required to achieve IYCF behavior change was context specific.
Different Doses, Forms, and Frequencies of Zinc Supplementation for the Prevention of Diarrhea and Promotion of Linear Growth among Young Bangladeshi Children: A Six-Arm, Randomized, Community-Based Efficacy Trial
Islam, M. Munirul, Robert E. Black, Nancy F. Krebs, et al. The Journal of Nutrition, January 2022
- Monitoring, Evaluation, and Learning
Research Articles
Researchers evaluating the effects of doses, durations, and frequencies of zinc supplementation found no differences in the incidence or prevalence of diarrhea across five intervention groups in Bangladesh. The decline in children’s linear growth was somewhat smaller in one intervention group compared with the placebo group.
Differential Influences of Early Growth and Social Factors on Young Children’s Cognitive Performance in Four Low-and-Middle-Income Birth Cohorts (Brazil, Guatemala, Philippines, and South Africa)
Richter, L.M., F. M. Orkin, L.S. Adair. et al. SSM-Population Health, December 2020
- Early Childhood Development
Research Articles
Research demonstrates that parental education and household resources have a greater impact on childhood cognition than birth weight and early linear growth. Improving children’s cognitive functioning requires multi-sectoral interventions to strengthen parental education and economic wellbeing.
Distance and Blended Learning Guide: Parts 1&2
USAID MOMENTUM, August 2021
Reports and Tools
The guide provides tools for implementers to shift trainings to a virtual format and discusses how to assess training resources, participant needs, technology access and skills, and impacts and outcomes.
Distance and Blended Learning, Part 1: An Overview and Introduction to Assessing Resources, Needs, and Capacities
USAID MOMENTUM, April 2021
Reports and Tools
This guide provides an overview of different kinds of distance and blended learning; insights about the advantages and challenges of each; and tools for conducting inventories, assessments, and surveys prior to implementing virtual training. It provides guidance on how to assess training resources, participants’ needs, and technology access and skills, and outlines key considerations and steps to transition in-person trainings to virtual ones.
Do Effects of Early Life Interventions on Linear Growth Correspond to Effects on Neurobehavioural Development? A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis
Prado, Elizabeth L., Leila M. Larson, Katherine Cox, et al. The Lancet, Vol. 7, Issue 10, October 10, 2019
- Early Childhood Development
Research Articles
Linear growth and child development are often assumed to have common determinants. The authors assess this assumption through a systematic review and meta-analysis of interventions focused on length-for-age or height-for-age Z scores and child development outcomes for children 0-5 years old and during pregnancy. The researchers found that the determinants of linear growth and neurodevelopment are only partly shared; therefore, interventions should target determinants of both, if children are to thrive.
Do Engaging Fathers and Bundling Nutrition and Parenting Interventions Improve Young Child Diets and Development and Promote Gender Equality?
Global Communities, March 2022
- Early Childhood Development
Events
Bundled interventions produced greater benefits for child development, child diets, nutrition and parenting practices, and household gender equality than nutrition-only interventions. Engaging couples benefited child diets, maternal and paternal care practices, household gender equality, and women’s empowerment more than interventions for mothers only. This is a webinar with accompanying materials.
Do Non-Maternal Adult Female Household Members Influence Child Nutrition? Empirical Evidence from Ethiopia
Usman, Muhammed Abdella, Lukas Kornher, Tekalign Gutu Sakketa. Maternal & Child Nutrition, July 2021
Research Articles
Having an additional non-maternal adult female household member is significantly associated with higher height-for-age and weight-for-age z-scores and reduces the likelihood of severe stunting.
Do Not Transform Food Systems on the Backs of the Rural Poor
Davis, Benjamin, Leslie Lipper, Paul Winters. Food Security, January 2022
- Food Systems
Research Articles
Many food system transformation approaches do not explicitly include measures to ensure that envisioned changes will improve the livelihoods of low-income people living in rural areas. Such modeling risks transforming food systems to reach environmental and nutritional objectives without considering unintended consequences for this population.
Do's and Don'ts for Engaging Men and Boys
USAID Interagency Gender Working Group, January 2019
- Social and Behavior Change and Gender
Reports and Tools
A practical job aid for decision-making about programs, policy, media coverage, research, and funding priorities, this two-page document details recent lessons learned and best practices for engaging males in health promotion and gender equity work across health areas. It encourages users to consider men’s roles as clients, partners, and agents of change.
The Do's and Don'ts in Monitoring Salt Iodization and Iodine Status: Guidance on the Monitoring of Salt Iodization Programmes and Determination of Population Iodine Status
Iodine Global Network and UNICEF, February 2020
- Monitoring, Evaluation, and Learning
Events
Representatives from the Iodine Global Network and UNICEF presented on the Guidance on Monitoring Salt Iodization Programmes and Iodine Status issued in 2018. During the webinar, speakers touched on subjects related to salt iodization, including implications for monitoring iodine nutrition programs, key recommendations from the UNICEF guidance, and how this guidance can inform program management. Related webinar recordings and presentation materials were also provided in Russian, French, and Spanish.
Double Burden of Malnutrition: A Systematic Review of Operational Definitions
Davis, Jennie N., Brietta M. Oaks, Reina Engle-Stone. Current Developments in Nutrition, September 2020
- Monitoring, Evaluation, and Learning
Research Articles
While most double burden of malnutrition definitions include overweight and obesity variables, they diverge in their use of thinness, wasting, underweight, stunting, anemia, and micronutrient deficiency measurements. Clear, specific definitions will improve data comparability across populations, future surveillance efforts, intervention implementation and evaluation, and program and policy development.
Drivers of Food Acquisition Practices in the Food Environment of Peri-Urban Hyderabad, India: A Qualitative Investigation
Turner, C., S. Bhogadi, H. Walls, et al. Health & Place, March 2022
- Food Systems
Research Articles
Findings from a study investigating food acquisition practices in Hyderabad, India, revealed a need for targeted interventions in external and personal food environments to improve diets, nutrition, and health.
Drivers of Under-Five Stunting Trend in 14 Low- and Middle-Income Countries since the Turn of the Millennium: A Multilevel Pooled Analysis of 50 Demographic and Health Surveys
Argaw, Alemayehu, Giles Hanley-Cook, Nathalie De Cock, et al. Multidisciplinary Digital Publishing Institute, September 5, 2019
- Monitoring, Evaluation, and Learning
- Social and Behavior Change and Gender
Research Articles
Analyzing data from 50 Demographic and Health Surveys in 14 different countries since 2000, the authors of this study sought to detect trends in stunting and potential contributing factors. Their research found a decreasing trend in stunting among all countries. Factors such as improvement in women’s decision-making, increasing urbanization, and children's access to basic vaccinations were significantly associated with the decreasing trend and reinforce the need for a combination of nutrition-sensitive and -specific interventions. Findings from such analyses may help guide global efforts to reduce stunting and monitor progress against chronic childhood undernutrition.
Drops of Capillary Blood Are Not Appropriate for Hemoglobin Measurement with Point-of-Care Devices: A Comparative Study Using Drop Capillary, Pooled Capillary, and Venous Blood Samples
De la Cruz-Góngora, Vanessa, Ignacio Méndez-Gómez-Humarán, Elsa Berenice Gaona-Pineda, et al. Nutrients, December 2022
- Monitoring, Evaluation, and Learning
Research Articles
Using drops of capillary blood produces too much random variation to approximate true hemoglobin values. Practitioners should not use this method to diagnose anemia in individuals and populations.