Improvement of Dietary Diversity and Attitude toward Recommended Feeding through Novel Community Based Nutritional Education Program in Coastal Kenya—An Intervention Study

Mami Hitachi, Violet Wanjihia, Lilian Nyandieka, Chepkirui Francesca, Norah Wekesa, Juma Changoma, Erastus Muniu, Phillip Ndemwa, Sumihisa Honda, Kenji Hirayama, Mohammed Karama and Satoshi Kaneko
Additional contact information
Mami Hitachi: Program for Nurturing Global Leaders in Tropical and Emerging Communicable Diseases, Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences, Nagasaki University, Nagasaki 852-8523, Japan
Violet Wanjihia: Centre for Public Health Research, Kenya Medical Research Institute (KEMRI), Nairobi 20752-00202, Kenya
Lilian Nyandieka: Centre for Public Health Research, Kenya Medical Research Institute (KEMRI), Nairobi 20752-00202, Kenya
Chepkirui Francesca: Department of Community Health and Epidemiology, School of Public Health, Kenyatta University, Nairobi 43844-00100, Kenya
Norah Wekesa: Kenya Medical Research Institute, KEMRI graduate school, Nairobi 54840-00200, Kenya
Juma Changoma: NUITM-KEMRI Project, Institute of Tropical Medicine (NUITM), Nagasaki University, Nairobi 19993-00202, Kenya
Erastus Muniu: Centre for Public Health Research, Kenya Medical Research Institute (KEMRI), Nairobi 20752-00202, Kenya
Phillip Ndemwa: Centre for Public Health Research, Kenya Medical Research Institute (KEMRI), Nairobi 20752-00202, Kenya
Sumihisa Honda: Department of Nursing, Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences, Nagasaki University, Nagasaki 852-8523, Japan
Kenji Hirayama: Department of Immunogenetics, Institute of Tropical Medicine, Nagasaki University, Nagasaki 852-8523, Japan
Mohammed Karama: Kenya Medical Research Institute, KEMRI graduate school, Nairobi 54840-00200, Kenya
Satoshi Kaneko: Department of Eco-epidemiology, Institute of Tropical Medicine, Nagasaki University, Nagasaki 852-8523, Japan

IJERPH, 2020, vol. 17, issue 19, 1-11

Abstract: Community-based nutritional intervention to improve the practice of dietary diversity and child nutrition by community health workers (CHWs) involving Nyumba Kumi as small neighborhood units (SNUs) in communities has not yet been explored. This study was conducted in two villages in rural Kenya between 2018 and 2019. In total, 662 participants (control vs. intervention: n = 339 vs. n = 323) were recruited. The intervention group received education on maternal and child nutrition and follow-up consultations. The custom-tailored educational guidelines were made based on Infant and Young Child Feeding and the mother and child health booklet. The educational effects on household caregivers’ feeding practice attitude and child nutritional status were analyzed using multiple linear regression. After the intervention, a total of 368 household caregivers (187 vs. 181) and 180 children (113 vs. 67) were analyzed separately. Between the groups, no significant difference was found in their background characteristics. This study successfully improved the dietary diversity score (β = 0.54; p < 0.01) and attitude score (β = 0.29; p < 0.01). The results revealed that the interventions using CHWs and SNUs were useful to improve dietary diversity and caregivers’ attitudes toward recommended feeding. This research has the potential to be successfully applied in other regions where child undernutrition remains.

Keywords: education; intervention; child nutrition; dietary diversity; attitude; community health workers; small neighborhood units; Nyumba Kumi (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2020
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/17/19/7269/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/17/19/7269/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:17:y:2020:i:19:p:7269-:d:423913

Access Statistics for this article

IJERPH is currently edited by Ms. Jenna Liu

More articles in IJERPH from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().