Child Malnutrition

This cluster-randomized crossover trial evaluates whether the packaging format of small-quantity lipid-based nutrient supplements (SQ-LNS) affects caregiver adherence and acceptability when SQ-LNS are delivered through routine growth monitoring services in Northern Ghana. SQ-LNS are a proven intervention for reducing child malnutrition, but packaging format may affect how caregivers store, dispense, and use the product, and it also drives cost and distribution logistics. Up to sixteen health facilities participating in growth monitoring services each deliver both formats: a 1-day sachet (20 g daily) and a 7-day resealable pouch (140 g weekly), with the order of delivery randomized at facility level. Each format is delivered for one month before crossover, and caregivers receive a 28-day supply totaling 560 g in each period regardless of format. The primary outcome is adherence, measured by weighing SQ-LNS returned unconsumed and expressed as the percentage of dispensed product consumed. The trial tests whether adherence with the 7-day pouch is non-inferior to adherence with 1-day sachets, using a margin of 5.0 percentage points. Secondary outcomes include caregiver acceptability and preference, observed dispensing accuracy and package opening, and qualitative assessment of implementation facilitators and barriers. This implementation research study uses a convergent mixed-methods design, integrating quantitative adherence and acceptability data with in-depth interviews and structured observations to inform real-world program implementation. Findings will guide policy and program decisions for integrating SQ-LNS into child health platforms in Ghana and other low-resource settings.

Globally, populations are experiencing increases in the double burden of malnutrition, commonly defined as maternal overweight/obesity and child stunting in the same household. This study will evaluate an integrated intervention combining food supplementation for pregnant and postpartum women and their infants with behavioral counseling to promote healthy maternal weight, nutrition, physical activity, and infant feeding practices. The goal is to reduce the double burden of malnutrition in rural Indigenous communities in Guatemala.

This study will focus on a new community health worker (CHW) program called 'Flourish', which is implemented by Philippine non-governmental organization (NGO) International Care Ministries (ICM). ICM's core program is 'Transform', which is a poverty alleviation program that focuses on households living in ultra-poverty (less than 0.50 United States dollars (USD) per person per day). Transform leverages local community networks to identify 30 participants from the most marginalized households in the community. ICM then provides these participants with 15 weeks of health and livelihood education, as well as with health interventions, including childhood malnutrition treatment. In ICM's Flourish program, one of the 30 participants in each Transform program is nominated by their peers to become an ICM-supported CHW. The CHWs will not only provide health services after the conclusion of the Transform program for their fellow Transform participants' households, but they will also serve an additional 50+ households in their communities. These additional 'non-Transform' households will be identified by asking the Transform participants to nominate peers in their social networks that share similar socioeconomic backgrounds and whose households are perceived to also benefit from CHW services. The primary aim of this research is to assess the impact of CHWs on the prevalence of acute childhood malnutrition in hard-to-reach households within low-income communities. The investigators hypothesize that this study will show that CHWs are able to reduce the prevalence of acute childhood malnutrition in hard-to-reach households within low-income communities.