Promotion of Egg and Eggshell Powder Consumption Improve Nutritional Status of Children of Under Two Years of Age: A Cluster Randomized Controlled Community Trial in Halaba Ethiopia

Young children in Ethiopia lack sufficient protein and micronutrients for growth and development.The study will adopt a 6-month cluster-randomized and controlled trial design. There will be a treatment group (communities receiving chickens) and a control group (no chickens for the 6 months of the study).

Study participants will be recruited from all children aged between 6-15 months old, who are residents of 6 Kebeles in the clusters. from these 6, the Control and Intervention areas will be randomly selected. This age group is selected because it is the time of introduction of complementary food and it will be easier to see the clear effect of egg on the children growth, rather than choosing older children.

In the Intervention group, children who are known to be allergic to egg will be excluded from the study. The following measurements will be made at baseline (prior to chicken ceremony in intervention areas) and at month 6: dietary assessment by 24-hour recall of child and mother; food frequency questionnaire for diet diversity score; hemoglobin test (involving a single finger prick) of child; weight and height (or for very young children, length); knowledge and attitude questions on egg and egg-shell nutrition. At baseline only, caregivers will answer demographic questions. Monthly, there will be monitoring of egg and eggshell consumption by children as well as measurement of height (length), and a structured questionnaire on morbidity. In the intervention group, caregivers will be instructed to provide one egg and a small amount of eggshell (providing 500 mg calcium). At 9 month, the research assistant will visit the Intervention communities to informally gather data on chickens being used, participant children's health status (any follow-up morbidity data). Throughout data will be collected on infection rate, with the possibility of improvement due to better nutrition but also awareness that bringing chickens into the community could pose a risk to very young children. As well, there will be formal follow-up observation at one community site with focus group discussion and key informant interviews, as a way to assess feasibility and practically of chicken donation in the future. This will be a convenience sample representing participant parents, community leaders, Agriculture Extension workers, Health extension workers, persons who were not directly involved. Those targeted for interviews will be the extension workers from whom feedback will be provided, while focus groups will be held with others who are able to attend a focus group session .

Data checks will be provided by the MSc student and his local supervisor who planned the study but is not directly involved in day-to-day running of the intervention. The student will write SOPs for all procedures. Missing data will be accounted for but as this is a community based study group means will be used for most outcome measurements. Comparing of two means/the differences of means between the intervention and control groups will be done using independent two sample t-test. Continuous outcomes will be analyzed using paired t-test. Bivariate analysis will be used to see the overall effect of independent variables and then further multivariate analysis (multiple linear regressions) will be done to see the effect of each independent variable. Both crude and adjusted risk ratio with 95% confidence interval will be reported. Other variables and relevant findings will be also analyzed using proper statistical test/analysis techniques and reported accordingly. P-value of less than 0.05 will be taken as significant