Translating Adoption of Improved Varieties Into Nutritional Impact (QPM)

President and Fellows of Harvard College

Status: Completed

Conditions: Malnutrition

Treatments: Other: Adoption Encouragement Treatment; Other: Consumption Encouragement Treatment

Study type: Interventional

Funder types: Other

Identifiers

NCT02710760

IRB14-3255

Details and patient eligibility

About

The purposes of this study are (1) to determine whether child nutrition-focused adoption encouragement messages focused on Quality Protein Maize (QPM) and the availability of small quantities of QPM seed can be effective at increasing QPM adoption and health outcomes for young children, and (2) to determine whether consumption encouragement messages and techniques (e.g., containers for earmarking) can be effective at increasing QPM targeting to and health outcomes for young children.

Enrollment: 978 patients

Sex: All

Ages: 6 to 35 months old

Volunteers: Accepts Healthy Volunteers

Inclusion criteria

Households with at least one child in the 6-35 month age range in August 2015, who had at least one household member attend a field day demonstrating Quality Protein Maize, and who provided informed consent for participation and data collection were eligible for inclusion.

Exclusion criteria

Households in the study areas that do not have a member who attends a field day demonstrating Quality Protein Maize or who do not have a child in the appropriate age range are excluded from the study. Furthermore, households where the mother or children did not intend on staying in the region for the study duration (until the completion of the endline survey) were excluded from the study. Finally, we excluded participants who do not have access to land for crop cultivation.

Trial design

Primary purpose: Prevention

Allocation: Randomized

Interventional model: Factorial Assignment

Masking: None (Open label)

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978 participants in 3 patient groups

Control

No Intervention group

Description:

Households in the control group receive no special treatment.

Adoption Encouragement Treatment

Experimental group

Description:

Households in the Adoption Encouragement Treatment group were visited between March and April 2015 and offered "child nutrition focused" adoption encouragement. Both the male household head and the primary female caregiver were invited to attend these meetings (though the household head is the primary target), where the nutritional benefits of Quality Protein Maize (QPM) adoption for children were emphasized along with the agronomic properties. In addition, the fact that only small amounts of QPM are necessary to nourish children was highlighted and small seed bag sizes were offered. During the adoption encouragement visit, we offered the option to order up to three 2 kg bags of QPM for free.

Treatment:

Other: Adoption Encouragement Treatment

Consumption Encouragement Treatment

Experimental group

Description:

In addition to receiving the Adoption Encouragement Treatment, households in the Consumption Encouragement Treatment group received additional information, targeted to the caregiver, and tools for separating Quality Protein Maize and targeting it to young children in the household in August 2015. They will additionally receive further guidance in February 2016.

Treatment:

Other: Consumption Encouragement Treatment

Other: Adoption Encouragement Treatment