Clinical Trial: Assessing the Effect of Sustainable Small-scale Egg Production on Maternal and Child Nutrition in Rural Zambia

Study Status: Enrolling by invitation
Recruit Status: Enrolling by invitation
Study Type: Interventional

Official Title: Assessing the Effect of Sustainable Small-scale Egg Production on Maternal and Child Nutrition in Rural Zambia

Brief Summary:

Animal source foods (ASF), such as meat and eggs, are rich in nutrients critical for growth and development. Yet, for poor children in developing countries, ASF consumption is limited by cost, inadequate caregiver knowledge, and lack of local production and physical availability. The impact of HH- and village-level livestock interventions on household dietary diversity and nutritional status in resource-poor communities is not well established. The objective of this study is to test the effectiveness of local egg production intervention on maternal and child diets and child nutrition status.

This project takes place in the Luangwa Valley, Zambia in partnership with a local non-governmental organization, COMACO. Twenty communities will be assigned to the intervention, and 20 matched communities will be selected as controls. In each intervention community, an egg production facility will be built, owned, and operated by trained COMACO farmers. Simultaneously, a nutrition-focused behavior change campaign will be disseminated to all communities.

Households (HHs) in each community will be sampled twice annually for 1 year pre-intervention (baseline) and 2 years post-intervention to assess dietary diversity and nutritional status. Data analysis will test for a change in these outcomes from baseline in each intervention community compared to the matched control community.


Detailed Summary:

The objective of this study is to test the effectiveness of an intervention establishing local egg production on maternal and child diets and nutrition status. The investigators hypothesize that this intervention, combined with appropriate agricultural extension and nutrition education programs, will result in: 1) increased total household, maternal, and child consumption of eggs; 2) improved maternal and child dietary quality; and 3) improved infant/ young child nutritional status.

The investigators will test this hypothesis in the Luangwa Valley, Zambia in partnership with a local non-governmental organization, Community Markets for Conservation (COMACO). The forty study sites are located in four geographic clusters (Chiefdoms) in Eastern Province Zambia. These Chiefdoms are located in two districts: Mambwe (Mnkhanya, Jumbe, and Nsefu Chiefdoms) and Lundazi (Mwanya Chiefdom).

Twenty communities will be assigned to the intervention (egg production and community nutrition education), and 20 matched communities will be selected as controls (nutrition education only). In each intervention community, an egg production facility will be built, each owned and operated by trained COMACO farmers, mostly women. Each group will be provided layer pullets at point-of-lay and layer mash. Facility owners will make all business decisions, retain all profits, and will be responsible for all upkeep costs.

Simultaneously, a nutrition-focused behavior change campaign will be disseminated through COMACO's extension channels, reaching both intervention and control communities.

In a repeated cross-sectional study design, indicators of food security, wealth, diet, nutritional status (anthropometrics), and health and wellbeing will be assessed in a
Sponsor: Cornell University

Current Primary Outcome: Change in child height-for-age Z-score [ Time Frame: 6, 12, 18, and 24 months after intervention ]

Recumbent length for children < 24 months and standing height for those 24-36 months, with WHO Child Growth Standards as the reference population.


Original Primary Outcome: Same as current

Current Secondary Outcome:

  • Change in household egg consumption [ Time Frame: 6, 12, 18, and 24 months after intervention ]
    7 day recall on total number of chicken or other eggs consumed in the household
  • Change in maternal egg consumption [ Time Frame: 6, 12, 18, and 24 months after intervention ]
  • Change in child egg consumption [ Time Frame: 6, 12, 18, and 24 months after intervention ]
  • Change in maternal dietary diversity [ Time Frame: 6, 12, 18, and 24 months after intervention ]
    Measured by Women's Dietary Diversity Score, a 24 hour recall of all foods consumed, organized into 9 food groups
  • Change in child dietary diversity [ Time Frame: 6, 12, 18, and 24 months after intervention ]
  • Change in child stunting [ Time Frame: 6, 12, 18, and 24 months after intervention ]
    Defined as having a height-for-age z-score < -2.0, with WHO Growth Standards as the reference population.


Original Secondary Outcome: Same as current

Information By: Cornell University

Dates:
Date Received: August 3, 2015
Date Started: June 2014
Date Completion: July 2017
Last Updated: August 5, 2015
Last Verified: August 2015