Effects of Complementary Feeding Counseling on Appropriate Complementary Feeding Practices and Child Undernutrition

NCT ID: NCT05871346

Last Updated: 2025-04-17

Basic Information

• Recruitment Status: COMPLETED
• Clinical Phase: NA
• Total Enrollment: 776 participants
• Study Classification: INTERVENTIONAL
• Study Start Date: 2023-06-09
• Study Completion Date: 2024-12-30

Brief Summary

Appropriate complementary feeding practices as per the World Health Organization recommendations is a window of opportunity to promote health and prevent acute and chronic undernutrition (stunting, wasting & underweight). Globally, the burden of undernutrition remains unacceptably high, and the progress of undernutrition reduction is unsatisfactorily slow. In Ethiopia, appropriate complementary feeding practices of mothers to their children are very low. In contrast, child undernutrition is a major public health problem.

Detailed Description

Appropriate nutrition during the first 1000 days of life lays the foundation for a child's health and well-being. Introduction of complementary foods within 6-8 months of age and step-wise increase of diversified plant and animal-based diets is necessary, for which exclusive breast milk is no longer enough to meet the nutritional needs. Appropriate complementary feeding practices as per the World Health Organization recommendations is a window of opportunity to promote health and prevent acute and chronic undernutrition (stunting, wasting & underweight). Globally, the burden of undernutrition remains unacceptably high, and the progress of undernutrition reduction is unsatisfactorily slow. In Ethiopia, appropriate complementary feeding practices of mothers to their children are very low. In contrast, child undernutrition is a major public health problem. This study aims to determine the effects of complementary feeding counseling on appropriate complementary feeding practices and child undernutrition through a community-based randomized controlled trial.

Conditions

Feeding Behavior

Study Design

• Allocation Method: RANDOMIZED
• Intervention Model: PARALLEL
• Primary Study Purpose: PREVENTION
• Blinding Strategy: DOUBLE

Study Groups

Complementary Feeding Counseling

Complementary feeding counseling to the mother-child pairs, in the intervention clusters, will be given by trained women development army (WDA) team leaders. The intervention process will have two components; training of WDA leaders, and counseling of mothers. Counselors' training will be given centrally by the principal investigator. During counseling, WDA leaders will use a counseling guide, which is prepared in Amharic, the local and the national language. The counseling guide contains seven key messages; complementary feeding: at 6 months, from 6-8 months, from 9-11 months, from 12-23 months, hygiene, breast feeding a sick child greater than 6 months, and signs that require mothers' special care of their children. Starting the children's 6 months of age, participants in the intervention group will receive in group counseling at convenient places, and individual counseling at each mother-child pair's home every month for 9 consecutive months (a total of 9 months follow up).

Group Type: EXPERIMENTAL

Complementary feeding counseling

Intervention Type: BEHAVIORAL

Complementary Feeding Counseling to Improve Appropriate Complementary Feeding Practices and Reduce Child Undernutrition

Routine Complementary Feeding Counseling

Participants in the control clusters will receive the routine complementary feeding counseling, which is offered by heath extension workers and other health professionals.

Group Type: EXPERIMENTAL

Complementary feeding counseling

Intervention Type: BEHAVIORAL

Complementary Feeding Counseling to Improve Appropriate Complementary Feeding Practices and Reduce Child Undernutrition

Interventions

Complementary feeding counseling

Complementary Feeding Counseling to Improve Appropriate Complementary Feeding Practices and Reduce Child Undernutrition

Intervention Type: BEHAVIORAL

Eligibility Criteria

Inclusion Criteria

1. Mother-child pairs whose children are 6 months old.

2. Mother-child pairs who reside in the study area for at least 6 months before the survey.

3. Mother-child pairs who have no intention of leaving the study area during the intervention period.

Exclusion Criteria

1. Mothers with severe mental illness or who are unable to communicate (e.g., deaf).

2. Mother-child pairs with severe congenital malformations of their children.

• Minimum Eligible Age: 6 Months
• Maximum Eligible Age: 21 Months
• Eligible Sex: ALL
• Accepts Healthy Volunteers: No

Sponsors

Bahir Dar University

OTHER

Sponsor Role: lead

Responsible Party

Shiferaw Birhanu Aynalem, MSc

Principal investigator.

Responsibility Role: PRINCIPAL_INVESTIGATOR

Principal Investigators

Shiferaw Bi Aynalem, MSc

Role: PRINCIPAL_INVESTIGATOR

Bahir Dar University

Locations

Bahir Dar University

Bahir Dar, Amhara Regional State, Ethiopia

Countries

Ethiopia

References

Michaelsen KF, Grummer-Strawn L, Begin F. Emerging issues in complementary feeding: Global aspects. Matern Child Nutr. 2017 Oct;13 Suppl 2(Suppl 2):e12444. doi: 10.1111/mcn.12444.

Reference Type: RESULT

PMID: 29032617 (View on PubMed)

Other Identifiers

adenek2195

Identifier Type: -

Identifier Source: org_study_id