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Increases in caregivers' contributions to household food and non‐food expenditures did not affect child outcomes in the ENAM project
Author(s) -
Colecraft Esi K,
Marquis Grace S,
Lartey Anna,
SakyiDawson Owuraku,
Ahunu B K,
Butler Lorna M,
Reddy Manju B,
Jensen Helen H,
Lonergan Elisabeth
Publication year - 2009
Publication title -
the faseb journal
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.709
H-Index - 277
eISSN - 1530-6860
pISSN - 0892-6638
DOI - 10.1096/fasebj.23.1_supplement.352.5
Subject(s) - psychological intervention , affect (linguistics) , anthropometry , environmental health , intervention (counseling) , gerontology , psychology , medicine , nursing , communication
Interventions that enhance women's incomes are likely to improve child nutrition outcomes. This association may be reduced if women increase their economic contribution primarily to household non‐food rather than food expenditures. The ENAM project is a nutrition education and enterprise development intervention aimed at improving caregiver incomes and children's animal source food (ASF) intakes. We assessed caregivers' contributions to household food and non‐food expenditures and their differential effects on children's ASF diversity and growth. 179 intervention and 287 control caregivers were interviewed about their household expenditures at 4 quarterly time points. Children's ASF intakes and anthropometry were also recorded. There were no between‐group differences at baseline. At the final time point, compared to control households, the intervention households had higher percentage increases in caregiver contribution to food (52.5% ± 40.4% vs 66.2% ± 33.1%; P<0.001) and non‐food (51.8% ± 34.1% vs. 63.9% ± 29.2%; p<0.05) expenditures. However, neither increased caregivers' contributions to food nor non‐food expenditures affected children's ASF diversity or anthropometry. An increase in the proportion of household expenditures coming from caregivers did not affect child nutritional outcomes. Funding: GL‐CRSP, funded in part by USAID, Grant # PCE‐G‐00‐98‐00036‐00.