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Table 2 Description of studies included

From: Effectiveness of nutrition training of health workers toward improving caregivers’ feeding practices for children aged six months to two years: a systematic review

Author

Country

Design

Population

Intervention

Comparator

Results- outcome of interest

 

Feeding frequency

Energy intake

Dietary diversity

Bhandari N 2001

India

RCT

Nutritionists, Caregivers and their children.

Intervention group received nutrition training from the trained nutritionists. Description of training duration for nutritionists was not provided.

Comparison group’s health workers were not trained to provide n = 106

No details

At 9 months

No details

(Intervention-n = 104, Control 106)

• I: 978kj/day; IQR 406–1371

• C: 577kj/day; IQR 196–1250

• P < 0.05

At 12 months

• I: 1417kj/day; IQR 723–2253

• C: 924kj/day; IQR 474–1471

 

• P < 0.05

 

Santos I 2001

Brazil

Cluster RCT

Doctors (Intervention-17, Control-16) and pairs of caregivers and their children (Intervention-218, Control-206)

Nutrition counseling component of WHO’s Integrated Management of Childhood Illness (IMCI) given for 20 hours to doctors in the intervention group. The trained doctors provided counseling to caregivers.

16 doctors did not receive nutrition counseling training. They offered general care to caregivers and their children

No details

At <18 months

Compared to Control, Intervention group had higher proportion of dietary diversity (also see Table 5)

• Intervention: 3827.5 kJ/day; SD 1230.9

• Control: 3546.8 kJ/day; SD 1058.1

• P = 0.3

Bhandari N 2004

India

Cluster RCT

Health and nutrition workers; pairs of caregivers and their children

Health and nutrition workers in the 4 intervention communities received nutrition training. They cared for 552 child-mother pairs.

Health and nutrition workers in 4 communities without nutrition training. They cared for 473 child-mother pairs.

At 9 months:

At 9 months:

Compared to Control, Intervention group had high proportion of dietary diversity (see Table 5)

• I: 4.4; SD 1.5

• I: 1556 kJ/Day; SD 1109

• C: 3.9; SD 1.7

• C: 1025 kJ/Day; SD 866

At 18 months

• P < 0.01

• I: 5.9; SD 1.2

At 18 months

C: 5.4; SD 1.3

• I: 3807 kJ/Day; SD 1527

• C: 2577 kJ/Day; SD 1058

Penny ME 2005

Peru

Cluster RCT

Health care workers and pairs of caregivers and their children

Health care workers in 6 health facilities received nutrition-training intervention; 187 babies were enrolled and their caregivers were counseled by these health workers.

Health care workers in 6 health facilities without the nutrition training intervention. They gave care to 190 babies enrolled in these facilities.

No details

At 9 months:

Dietary diversity at 18 months was higher in intervention group than the control group (Table 5)

• I: 450 kcal/day

• C: 400 kcal/day

At 18 months

• I: 960 kcal/day

• C: 800 kcal/day

• P = 0.001

Zaman S 2008

Pakistan

Cluster RCT

Community Health Workers and pairs of caregivers and their children

Health workers in 18 health centers received a 5 half days nutrition training using the WHO’s IMCI training module for nutrition. They recruited and gave counseling and consultation to151 child-mother pairs

Health workers in other 18 health centers without nutrition training intervention recruited and cared for 169 pairs of mothers and children

No details

• P < 0.01No details

Intervention group had a higher proportion on all the food items consumption compared to the control group (Table 5)

Shi L 2010

China

Cluster RCT

Primary healthcare providers; pairs of mothers and infants

Health care providers received nutrition training on complementary feeding, breastfeeding, and counseling skills. They counseled and provided care for 294 pairs of caregivers and their children.

Health workers from township hospitals did not receive nutrition training. Recruited and cared for 305 pairs of caregivers and their children.

At 9 months

No details

Intervention group had a higher proportion on all the food items consumed compared to the control group (Table 5)

• I: 3.77; SD 1.62

• C: 2.53;

SD1.82

• P < 0.001

At 12 months

• 4.17

• I: 2.90; SD 1.85

• P < 0.001

Vazir S 2012

India

Cluster RCT

Community health workers (Village health workers) n = 60 and 511 pairs of mothers and their children

Village health workers received supervised training on how to counsel mothers/caregivers on complementary feeding, and responsive feeding. Caregivers who received such counseling also received standard care.

Village health workers did not receive training. They provided only standard of care to caregivers and their children.

No details

At 9 months

Intervention groups (complementary and responsive feeding groups) had a higher proportion on all the food items consumption compared to the control group (Table 5)

• I: 348 kcal/day; IQR 229,540

• C: 209 kcal/day; IQR 122,338

• P < 0.005

At 15 months

• I: 569 kcal/day; IQR 539,618

• C: 460; IQR 429,489

P < 0.005

Roy SK 2005

Bangladesh

RCT

Nutritionists, medical officer, and health assistants

Two-week nutrition training was conducted for health workers. The training included nutrition education, counseling, and anthropometry. Trained health workers provided counseling to mothers of moderately malnourished children on complementary feeding.

Mothers of a control group received normal care from health workers who received no nutrition training

Feeding frequency >3 times/day

No details

No details

At 3 months

I: 98%, C: 54%

At 6 months

I: 97%, C: 58%

Pachon H 2002

Vietnam

Cluster RCT

Community health workers and 240 pairs of caregivers and their children

Training implementers (health workers) who are also health volunteers received nutrition training to implement intensive nutrition rehabilitation sessions for ten months. Counseling for caregivers was done twice a week for nine months.

Health workers were not trained to implement intensive nutrition rehabilitation sessions.

At 2–6 months

At 2–6 months

No details

• I: 4.6; SD 1.3

• I: 662.7 kcal/day; SD 301.0

• C: 4.2; SD 1.1

• C: 597.4 kcal/day; SD 275.7

• P < 0.01

• P < 0.1

At 12 months

At 12 months

• I: 4.9; SD 1.5

• I: 826.9 kcal/day SD 324.4

• C: 4.4; SD 1.5

• C: 718.4 kcal/day SD 330.0)

P < 0.01

• P < 0.01

Kilaru A 2005

India

Cluster RCT

Auxiliary nurse midwives, community health workers

Auxiliary nurse midwives, community health workers received nutrition training from MCH consultant (pediatrician and nutritionists). They provided counseling to 173 caregivers and their children

Normal standard of care provided by auxiliary nurse midwives who did not receive any special nutrition training

At 7-11 months Feeding frequency >4 times/day

No details

At 11 months

• I: 78%

Feeding at least 5 types/day

• C: 51%

• I: 42%

• P < 0.001

• C: 19%

 

P = 0.01

  1. Footnotes.
  2. I - Intervention group, C - Control group, P - P value, SD - Standard deviation, IQR - Inter quartile range, CI - Confidence Interval.