Community nutrition interventions in maternal and child health
A cohort study across three districts shows how locally-anchored counselling reshapes household feeding practices.
Household feeding practices are famously hard to shift. Yet a two-year cohort study across Wakiso, Mukono and Mpigi districts demonstrates that carefully designed, locally-anchored counselling can move the needle on the indicators that matter most for child growth.
Study design
We enrolled 612 mother–infant pairs and delivered a twelve-session counselling curriculum through community health workers, benchmarked against standard antenatal messaging.
Outcomes
Minimum dietary diversity in children aged 6–23 months rose by 21 percentage points in the intervention arm. Stunting prevalence at twenty-four months was five points lower than the control arm — a meaningful public-health signal for a low-touch intervention.
