Effect of a participation in a community-based nutrition program on children's outcomes

Background : This study aimed to assess the effectiveness of a protein-energetic malnutrition prevention and treatment community program on the nutritional status of 18 to 36-month-old children in the poor communities of the Mono Region in Benin. Methods: Two cross sectional anthropometric surveys were conducted. The first survey took place in 1998, before the implementation of the program; the second survey was conducted three years later. At each survey, cluster samples proportional to the population size was done; the size of the samples were 617 in 1998 and 648 in 2001. The nutritional status of 18 to 36 month-old-children was assessed by z-score of the indexes height-for-age, weight-for-age and weight-for-height and the cut-off point of -2 standard deviation was used to identify children who had stunting, wasting or underweight; children with serious stunting, wasting or underweight were identified with the cut-off point of -3 standard deviation. Results: From 1998 to 2001, there was a significant reduction in the prevalence of growth retardation (-13.1%) and underweight (-13.0%). The reductions observed for the three types of protein-energetic malnutrition were more pronounced in the 30 to 36 months age group than in the others age groups. Conclusion: Substantial improvement was observed during the three years activities. This improvement cannot be attributed to the program unconditionally, because there was no difference between the nutritional status of participant and non participant children.