EFFECTIVENESS OF EDUCATIONAL INTERVENTION FOR PEDIATRIC MALNUTRITION

Childhood malnutrition remains a widespread problem in the developing world. Over 50-million children under the age of 5 years in the developing world were wasted, 27% of children were underweight and 32% were stunted. Malnutrition is associated with childhood deaths, diseases and infections, as well as children’s delayed mental and motor development.

In most developing countries, childhood malnutrition rates rose significantly at 6 months of age when complementary foods starts being introduced. Inappropriate complementary feeding practices such as poor quality and insufficient quantity of complementary foods have been identified as the major causes of malnutrition in young children. The problematic complementary feeding practices are associated with caretakers’ poor knowledge, lack of information and being restricted by traditional beliefs. It is essential to give caregivers necessary knowledge and information to alter their inappropriate feeding behaviours. Nutrition education, therefore, is a critical strategy of intervention to improve child complementary feeding practices.

The findings from five randomized controlled trials (RCTs) revealed an increase in infant total energy intake (65–300 kcal day⁻¹) and improvements in growth (0.04–0.46 SD). Most of the intervention programs produced positive impacts on caregivers’ feeding practices and children’s dietary intake and growth. During the past decade, a number of educational intervention programs have been published and added new evidence for the effects of educational intervention on children’s growth and nutritional status. The purpose of this review was to provide evidence from published studies since 1998 on the effectiveness of educational intervention programs on improving complementary feeding practices in the developing world.