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Impact evaluation of a milk supplementation programme on weight of children 6-24 months of age in Guyana, South America

A take-home milk supplementation programme consisting of 2 kg dry powdered milk offered monthly for 12 months to children 6--24 months of age in participating primary health care clinics was evaluated by assessing weight changes in supplemented and control children. Growth charts of supplemented (n = 362) and control (n = 410) children were summarized by the intercept and slope from the regression of individual weight measurements on age. The 2 groups were stratified by gender, ethnicity (Indo-Guyanese and Afro-Guyanese), and age intervals 0--6, 6--24, and 24--30 months which corresponded to pre, during, and post supplementation periods, respectively. Supplemented Indo-Guyanese girls gained significantly (p < 0.001) more weight than their controls: the difference being approximately 40 grams per month. No other differences were observed in the other gender/ethnic groups. Contextual information collected in a sub-sample of 60 mothers/caregivers of beneficiaries revealed that the supplement was mainly consumed with porridge, and tended to be shared more in the Afro-Guyanese than in Indo-Guyanese households. Over 90% of the beneficiaries were satisfied with the programme and wanted it to continue while 74% stated that it was of financial benefit. For future programmes, the use of locally produced infant cereal was recommended.

Identiferoai:union.ndltd.org:LACETR/oai:collectionscanada.gc.ca:QMM.20558
Date January 1998
CreatorsChan, Susan Deborah.
PublisherMcGill University
Source SetsLibrary and Archives Canada ETDs Repository / Centre d'archives des thèses électroniques de Bibliothèque et Archives Canada
LanguageEnglish
Detected LanguageEnglish
TypeElectronic Thesis or Dissertation
Formatapplication/pdf
CoverageMaster of Science (School of Dietetics and Human Nutrition.)
RightsAll items in eScholarship@McGill are protected by copyright with all rights reserved unless otherwise indicated.
Relationalephsysno: 001610634, proquestno: MQ44143, Theses scanned by UMI/ProQuest.

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