Impact of Harvest Lentil Vegetable Blend and Nutrition Education on Child Growth, Caregivers' Nutrition Knowledge, and WASH Practices.

Abstract

Objective: To assess the changes in child nutrition status, caregivers' knowledge, and water, sanitation, and hygiene (WASH) practices following the provision of Harvest Lentil Vegetable Blend to children and a nutrition education intervention to their caregivers.

Design: Three-week pretest-posttest study.

Setting: Turkana, Kenya.

Participants: Children aged 6-59 months (n = 162) and their caregivers (n = 127) completed the intervention, representing > 70% retention.

Interventions: Provision of Harvest Lentil Vegetable Blend to children and nutrition education intervention for caregivers on child feeding and WASH practices.

Main outcomes measures: Children's anthropometric measurements, caregivers' nutrition knowledge, and WASH practices.

Analysis: Wilcoxon signed rank and McNemar tests.

Results: At baseline, 19%, 24%, and 35% of children were stunted, underweight, and wasted, respectively. At the endpoint, the weight-for-age z-scores increased by 0.61 (P = 0.04) for children 6-12 months and by 0.31 (P = 0.03) for children 13-47 months. Weight-for-height z-scores increased by 0.84 (P = 0.04) among children 6-12 months and by 0.42 (P = 0.04) among children 13-47 months. The proportion of caregivers who reported washing hands after defecation and before cooking increased by 37% and 26%, respectively (P = 0.001).

Conclusions and implications: An on-site feeding program that used nutrient-dense supplemental food was associated with positive changes in children's nutrition status within a short duration. Nutrition education intervention increased the proportion of caregivers who practiced some key WASH practices.