Impact of the "Ten Steps for Healthy Feeding of Children Younger Than Two Years" in Health Centers

Federal University of Health Science of Porto Alegre

Status: Completed

Conditions: Feeding and Eating Disorders of Childhood

Treatments: Behavioral: Dietary Advice

Study type: Interventional

Funder types: Other

Identifiers

NCT00635453

vitolo3

Details and patient eligibility

About

A cluster randomized field trial to evaluate the impact that training healthcare workers in healthy feeding practices has on the nutrition and health of children.

Full description

Cluster randomized controlled trial targeting selected primary health care centers in Porto Alegre, South of Brazil, a city of 1.4 million inhabitants. The trial included health centers that provide primary care services predominantly to low-income families.Physicians, nurses and administrative staff of all intervention health centers participated in a training in January 2008 based on the "Ten Steps for Healthy Feeding for Brazilian Children from Birth to Two Years of Age" guideline.

Following staff training at the intervention sites, interviewers visited the intervention and control health centers from April to December 2008 to identify and enroll pregnant women who were in the last trimester of pregnancy. 98% of eligible pregnant women agreed to participate and answered a questionnaire about their socioeconomic status and expected due date. Addresses and telephone numbers were obtained in order to schedule subsequent home visits.

Data Collection:

Maternal interviews using structured questionnaires were conducted at baseline (during pregnancy - 2008) and at follow-up home-visits at mean child ages six months (2008/2009), 12 months (2009/2010) , three years (2011/2012) and six years (2014/2015) by field workers who were not involved in the intervention and who were unaware of the group allocations.

Enrollment: 715 patients

Sex: Female

Volunteers: No Healthy Volunteers

Inclusion criteria

• All pregnant women in the last trimester of the gestation.

Exclusion criteria

• HIV-positive mothers
• congenital malformation

Trial design

Primary purpose: Health Services Research

Allocation: Randomized

Interventional model: Parallel Assignment

Masking: Single Blind

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715 participants in 2 patient groups

I, Intervention

Experimental group

Description:

Physicians, nurses and administrative staff of all intervention health centers participated in a training of Dietary Advice in January 2008 based on the "Ten Steps for Healthy Feeding for Brazilian Children from Birth to Two Years of Age" guideline.13 An experienced nutritionist conducted a standardized session for the health care team to outline the "Ten Steps" recommendations and strategies and to provide suggestions how best to incorporate these into the consultations. Printed materials were provided to the Health Care Centers for use by these professionals and for access to the Brazilian Ministry of Healthy Nutrition Department´s website. Health staff members received a pocket guide for use during the appointments and waiting room sessions.

Treatment:

Behavioral: Dietary Advice

II, Control

No Intervention group

Description:

Healthcare centers randomized to the non-intervention group continued their routine medical assistance without any involvement of the research team. No materials were provided to these clinics.