Nutrition
- Matching Intent With Intensity: Implementation Research on the Intensity of Health and Nutrition Programs With Women's Self-Help Groups in India
Adding health interventions to women's groups primarily formed for financial purposes, such as self-help groups, is a widely used strategy to reach low-income women. An analysis of implementation intensity highlights the importance of ensuring that women's groups have sufficient time and population coverage to address health issues.
- Scaling Up Improved Inpatient Treatment of Severe Malnutrition: Key Factors and Experiences From South Africa, Bolivia, Malawi, and Ghana
We report lessons learned in 4 countries from scaling up the implementation of World Health Organization guidelines on inpatient management of severe acute malnutrition within routine health services. We provide evidence that implementation is achievable at scale within different contexts and health systems.
- Mother-Baby Friendly Philippines: Using Citizen Reporting to Improve Compliance to the International Code of Marketing of Breastmilk Substitutes
Citizen reporting has the potential to improve compliance with the International Code of Marketing Breastmilk Substitutes. However, any investments made on improving citizen and reporting platforms must be matched with similar investments in streamlining government processes, transparency, and confidence-building across all stakeholders.
- Mid-Upper Arm Circumference Tapes and Measurement Discrepancies: Time to Standardize Product Specifications and Reporting
Mid-upper arm circumference (MUAC) is a widely used anthropometric measure to identify children with acute malnutrition. The use of different tapes of varied materials and thicknesses to measure MUAC has led to discrepancies. This indicates the need for global standardization of MUAC tape design.
- Projecting the Impact of Nutrition Policy to Improve Child Stunting: A Case Study in Guatemala Using the Lives Saved Tool
We projected the impact of a Scaling Up Nutrition intervention policy, the Great Crusade, and found that increasing intervention coverage is unlikely to improve child stunting outcomes in Guatemala to meet Sustainable Development Goals by 2030.
- Uptake of Encapsulated Ferrous Fumarate Double Fortified Salt in the Public Distribution System in India: A Value Chain Analysis
Initiating and sustaining large-scale encapsulated ferrous fumarate double fortified salt interventions in the public distribution system in India poses several challenges that can be minimized by strengthening double fortified salt value chains.
- Accuracy of Using Mid-Upper Arm Circumference to Detect Wasting Among Children Aged 6–59 Months in Nepal
When comparing the sensitivity and specificity of mid-upper arm circumference (MUAC) versus weight-for-height z-scores (WHZ) to identify wasting in children aged 6–59 months in Nepal, our findings suggest that only using MUAC compared to WHZ to screen may exclude a large number of children who could be at risk of severe or moderate acute malnutrition.
- Nutrition Capacity Building to Meet National Priorities: Lessons Learned in Developing and Implementing Malawi's First Dietetics Program
We describe the lessons learned in building nutrition capacity through the development and implementation of the first dietetics training program in Malawi.
- Animal Source Food Social and Behavior Change Communication Intervention Among Girinka Livestock Transfer Beneficiaries in Rwanda: A Cluster Randomized Evaluation
A social and behavior change communication intervention designed to promote consumption of cow’s milk among families that received a cow from a government livestock transfer program increased mothers’ knowledge and awareness of milk consumption. Although intervention exposure was associated with increased frequency of children’s cow’s milk intake, it did not lead to increased consumption or dietary diversity.
- Micronutrient Powders for Infants and Young Children
Providing standalone micronutrient products for household use is not an easy strategy, but under the right conditions, it can work. To be effective, micronutrient powder programs require robust commodity logistics and support of uptake and adherence.