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Impact of CARE‐India's Integrated Nutrition and Health Program (INHP II) on infant feeding practices and growth in rural Uttar Pradesh, India
Author(s) -
Singh Veena,
Ahmed Saifuddin,
Dreyfuss Michele,
Srivastava Vinod,
Chaudhery Deepika,
Ahuja Ramesh,
Santosham Mathuram,
West Keith
Publication year - 2011
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.25.1_supplement.232.8
Subject(s) - underweight , medicine , breastfeeding , uttar pradesh , psychological intervention , weight for age , colostrum , nutrition education , demography , pediatrics , environmental health , population , obesity , overweight , gerontology , nursing , socioeconomics , antibody , sociology , immunology
Despite some success of nutrition education in improving infant feeding practices, such interventions have had little impact on growth. We evaluated CARE‐India's INHP II program that aimed to improve breastfeeding (BF) and complementary feeding (CF) practices and nutritional status of children under 2 yr in the Uttar Pradesh. A CARE program district was the intervention (Int) and a non‐CARE district with the Government of India's Integrated Child Development Services program was selected as the comparison (C) area. Through multi‐stage cluster random sampling, 81‐Int and 84‐C villages were selected. A cohort of 942 mother‐child pairs from birth to 18 mo of age was followed. Percentages of women initiating BF within 1 hr of delivery (17.4 vs 2.7, p<0.001), feeding colostrum (34.7 vs 8.4, p<0.001), avoiding pre‐lacteals (19.6 vs 2.1, p<0.001) and exclusively BF at 6 mo (24.1 vs 15.3, p=0.001) were higher in the intervention district. There were also differences in CF practices across the two areas but not consistently in favor of intervention districts. The mean weight for age z score was better at 9 mo (−2.1 vs −2.4, p=0.0026) and prevalence of underweight lower among intervention children (58.5 vs 69.3%, p=0.047) at 12 mo of age but there were no differences at 18 mo. No effect on stunting was observed. Despite early more complete BF achieved, sustained reductions in nutritional status were not found.