Helen Keller International's Enhanced-Homestead Food Production Program in Burkina Faso (EHFP)

International Food Policy Research Institute

Status: Completed

Conditions: Anemia; Growth

Treatments: Other: Enhanced-Homestead Food Production Program

Study type: Interventional

Funder types: Other; Other U.S. Federal agency

Identifiers

NCT01825226

6117001

Details and patient eligibility

About

Helen Keller International (HKI) has been implementing homestead food production (HFP) programs in Asia for the past 20 years and has recently begun implementing HFP programs in Africa as well. In general, these programs target women and are designed to improve maternal and child health and nutrition outcomes through three primary pathways: 1. Increasing the availability of micronutrient-rich foods through increased household production of these foods; 2. Raising income through the sale of surplus production; and 3. Increasing knowledge and adoption of optimal nutrition practices, including the consumption of micronutrient-rich foods. Evaluations of HFP programs have consistently demonstrated significant increases in household production and consumption of micronutrient-rich foods. This increased consumption, along with improvements in health and nutrition related knowledge, and increased income, could all contribute to improvements in maternal and child health and nutrition outcomes. However, to date there has been limited understanding as to how these types of programs can be optimized to maximize impacts on these outcomes.

In order to better understand the potential of these types of programs to improve maternal and child health and nutrition outcomes and how this impact may be achieved IFPRI has been collaborating with HKI to evaluate one of their E-HFP programs in Burkina Faso. The evaluation considers impact of the program through the three pathways above, and assesses anthropometric and clinical measures of nutrition, as well as looking at how the programs might be improved.

Enrollment: 1,763 patients

Sex: All

Ages: 3 to 12 months old

Volunteers: No Healthy Volunteers

Inclusion criteria

• Mother of child between the ages of 3 and 12 months and her child

Exclusion criteria

• N/A

Trial design

Primary purpose: Prevention

Allocation: Randomized

Interventional model: Single Group Assignment

Masking: None (Open label)

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1,763 participants in 2 patient groups

Program participation

Experimental group

Description:

Participation in an enhanced-homestead food production program including home gardening and nutrition and health behavior change communication

Treatment:

Other: Enhanced-Homestead Food Production Program

Control

No Intervention group