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Extent, intensity and quality of CARE‐India's INHP II/ ICDS program exposure and infant feeding practices 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 - 2012
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.26.1_supplement.269.3
Subject(s) - breastfeeding , medicine , outreach , intervention (counseling) , caste , uttar pradesh , postnatal care , breast feeding , nursing , family medicine , environmental health , pediatrics , demography , pregnancy , socioeconomics , economic growth , linguistics , philosophy , sociology , biology , economics , genetics
Evidence of the effectiveness of a scaled‐up nutrition intervention on breastfeeding (BF) and complementary feeding (CF) outcomes is limited. This study provides empirical evidence of the effectiveness of an International non‐government organization (NGO) CAREˈs program in a rural area of India. Utilizing a quasi‐experimental design, a district of CARE program was selected as the intervention and a non‐CARE district with the Government of Indiaˈs Integrated Child Development Services program as the comparison arm. A cohort of 942 mother‐child dyads was followed from birth to 18 months of age. The intervention district showed significant improvement in program coverage of outreach visits by the anganwadi worker (AWW) (40.3 vs. 26.2 at 6 mo), and auxiliary nurse midwife (ANM) (45.4 vs. 30.3 at 6 mo) at all the time periods. Frequency of contacts (¡Ý3) with AWW, and ANM, however, remained low in both arms (<15 vs. <11%). Contact with either of the health care providers showed a positive association with breastfeeding initiation (OR: 2.04–3.08, p=<0.001), adjusted for socio‐demographic and parental education, and caste. An examination of the dose‐response effects suggests that an increase in the number of visits imparts a stronger effect on improving BF initiation. Thus, it is important to improve the operational capacity of nutritional intervention before expecting any improvement in infant feeding practices.