Cash Transfers to Increase Dietary Diversity in Grand Gedeh County, Liberia

Boston Children's Hospital

Status: Completed

Conditions: Malnutrition, Child

Treatments: Other: Cash Transfer; Other: Cash Transfers and Nutrition Education

Study type: Interventional

Funder types: Other

Identifiers

NCT04101487

P00031767

Details and patient eligibility

About

The investigators aim to evaluate the efficacy of a cash transfer and nutrition education program delivered by community health assistants to increase dietary diversity among children 6 to 23 months of age in Grand Gedeh County, Liberia.

Full description

Worldwide, more than one in five children suffer from chronic malnutrition. In Liberia, there are more than 230,000 children suffering from chronic malnutrition and 32% of children under five are stunted. Previous studies have shown that inadequate dietary diversity is strongly associated with stunting in children under two years of age. An interventional package including cash transfers and education has the potential to improve dietary diversity and long-term outcomes such as improved growth and reduced rates of stunting among children.

The investigators' objective is to evaluate the efficacy of a cash transfer and nutrition education program delivered by community health assistants to increase dietary diversity among children 6 to 23 months of age in Grand Gedeh County, Liberia. The investigators will conduct a pilot, cluster randomized trial in 45 communities. The investigators hypothesize that a multi-pronged interventional package aimed at strengthening the household environment will result in improved dietary diversity for children 6 to 23 months of age. Moreover, the investigators also hypothesize that unconditional cash transfers will result in improved dietary diversity for children 6 to 23 months of age in Grand Gedeh County, Liberia.

Enrollment: 599 patients

Sex: All

Ages: 6 to 23 months old

Volunteers: Accepts Healthy Volunteers

Inclusion criteria

• Participants 6 to 23 months of age
• Participants with consenting caregivers to have monthly visits and to participate in the program
• Caregivers of all ages will be included

Exclusion criteria

• Participants who are younger than 6 months of age (children < 6 months of age are encouraged to exclusively breastfeed, making dietary diversity irrelevant in this age group)
• Participants older than 23 months of age
• Participants with non-consenting caregivers

Trial design

Primary purpose: Treatment

Allocation: Randomized

Interventional model: Parallel Assignment

Masking: None (Open label)

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599 participants in 3 patient groups

Control

No Intervention group

Description:

Participants in this arm will receive routine monthly visits along with survey administration and the regular package of health services provided at the facility level and at home by community health assistants

Cash Transfers

Experimental group

Description:

Participants in this arm will receive routine monthly visits along with the regular package of health services provided at the facility level and at home by community health assistants and unconditional cash transfers every month

Treatment:

Other: Cash Transfer

Cash Transfers and Nutrition Education

Experimental group

Description:

Participants in this arm will receive routine monthly visits along with the regular package of health services provided at the facility level and at home by community health assistants, unconditional cash transfers every month, and structured nutrition education provided at household level by community health assistants based on a structured nutrition education handbook.

Treatment:

Other: Cash Transfers and Nutrition Education