Effect of nutritional counselling of mothers on the complementary feeding practices of their infants in an urban resettlement colony of Shahdara district: a quasi-experimental study

TITLE**:** Effect of nutritional counselling of mothers on the complementary feeding practices of their infants in an urban resettlement colony of Shahdara district: a quasi-experimental study.

AIM: To improve the quality and quantity of complementary feeding of infants through nutritional counselling of mothers in an urban resettlement colony in Shahdara district of Delhi.

OBJECTIVES:

Primary Objectives:

1.     To assess the effect of nutritional counselling on quality and quantity of complementary feeding of infants using minimum diet diversity (MDD), minimum meal frequency (MMF) and minimum acceptable diet (MAD) by comparing the intervention group with the control group.

2.     To assess the effect of nutritional counselling on the consumption of unhealthy foods and sweetened beverages.

 Secondary Objectives:

1.     To assess the difference (if any) in the time of initiation of complementary feeding in the intervention and control groups of the study as a result of nutritional counselling.

2.     To assess the difference (if any) in adoption of various responsive feeding methods as a result of nutritional counselling between the two groups.

3.     To study the association of socio-demographic profile of the mother and the family with the complementary feeding practices.

STUDY SETTING: The study will be conducted in the Anganwadis of Nand Nagri, an urban resettlement colony in Shahdara district of Delhi.

STUDY AREA:  Nand Nagri is an urban resettlement colony in Shahdara district of Delhi. It is divided into five blocks which are comprised of a total 21 sub-blocks. Each sub-block is made up of approximately 500 houses. Each block of Nand Nagri has about 9-10 Anganwadis.

STUDY DESIGN: This shall be a community based quasi-experimental study.

SAMPLE SIZE: A study on effect of nutritional counselling on the MAD was done in tribal district of Palghar, Maharashtra by Surve et al, which found the MAD to be 5.32%, and 47.2% in the control and intervention group respectively.[21]Assuming that our study will result in similar improvement in MAD, and keeping the significance level of the study at 95%, power at 80%, applying a design effect of 2, and accounting for an attrition of 10%, the sample size came out to be 40 in each group (intervention and control), totalling to 80.

STUDY TOOLS:

1.     A self-prepared, pre-tested, structured, interviewer administered proforma for recording socio-demographic details.

2.     Information and education material for nutritional counselling and responsive feeding from the IYCF training module by Breastfeeding Promotion Network of India (BPNI).

3.     WHO 24- hour dietary recall questionnaire for dietary assessment and intake of unhealthy foods and sweet beverages.

4.     A self-prepared, pre-tested, structured questionnaire for assessing responsive feeding practices.

5.     5. A weighing scale and infantometer for anthropometry (weight and length).