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Public Health Nutrition Public Health Nutrition

Article contents

Effect of maternal nutritional education and counselling on children’s stunting prevalence in urban informal settlements in Nairobi, Kenya

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  22 July 2020

CK Nyamasege [Opens in a new window] ,
EW Kimani-Murage ,
M Wanjohi ,
DWM Kaindi  and
Y Wagatsuma
CK Nyamasege
Affiliation:
Graduate School of Comprehensive Human Sciences, University of Tsukuba, Tsukuba, Ibaraki305-8575, Japan Department of Clinical Trial and Clinical Epidemiology, Faculty of Medicine, University of Tsukuba, Tsukuba, Ibaraki305-8575, Japan
EW Kimani-Murage
Affiliation:
African Population and Health Research Center (APHRC), Nairobi, Kenya Wellcome Trust, London, UK
M Wanjohi
Affiliation:
African Population and Health Research Center (APHRC), Nairobi, Kenya
DWM Kaindi
Affiliation:
Department of Food Science, Nutrition and Technology, University of Nairobi, Nairobi, Kenya
Y Wagatsuma
Affiliation:
Department of Clinical Trial and Clinical Epidemiology, Faculty of Medicine, University of Tsukuba, Tsukuba, Ibaraki305-8575, Japan
Corresponding
E-mail address:
nkemunto2030@gmail.com
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Abstract

Objective:

To determine whether the prevalence of stunting differed between an intervention group and a control group and to identify factors associated with the children’s linear growth.

Design:

This was a follow-up study of mother–child pairs who participated in a 2012–2015 cluster randomised controlled trial. Linear mixed effects models were performed to model the children’s linear growth and identify the determinants of child linear growth.

Setting:

The study was conducted in two slums in Nairobi. The intervention group received monthly nutrition education and counselling (NEC) during pregnancy and infancy period.

Participants:

A birth cohort of 1004 was followed up every 3 months after delivery to the 13th month. However, as a result of dropouts, a total of 438 mother–child pairs participated during the 55-month follow-up. The loss to follow-up baseline characteristics did not differ from those included for analysis.

Results:

Length-for-age z-scores decreased from birth to the 13th month, mean –1·42 (sd 2·04), with the control group (33·5 %) reporting a significantly higher prevalence of stunting than the intervention group (28·6 %). Conversely, the scores increased in the 55th month, mean –0·89 (sd 1·04), with significantly more males (16·5 %) stunted in the control group than in the intervention group (8·3 %). Being in the control group, being a male child, often vomiting/regurgitating food, mother’s stature of <154 cm and early weaning were negatively associated with children’s linear growth.

Conclusions:

Home-based maternal NEC reduced stunting among under five years; however, the long-term benefits of this intervention on children’s health need to be elucidated.

Keywords

Stunting Maternal nutrition education and counselling Urban slums Community health workers Kenya
Type
Research paper
Information
Public Health Nutrition , First View , pp. 1 - 13
Copyright
© The Author(s), 2020

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