Dharavi Nutrition Project

Completed

• Conditions: Patient should be Moderately Acute Malnourished according to Weight for Height or MUAC

• Registration Number: CTRI/2017/08/009260
• Lead Sponsor: Tata Centre for Technology and Design

Brief Summary

**1. Motivation of the study:**

The burden of malnutrition on children results in hampering their ability to learn and thrive. Being born as a low birth weight baby increases the risks of death in early months/years, thus necessitating an effective intervention. Conditions such as underweight, wasting (acute malnutrition), and stunting (chronic malnutrition) often go undetected, especially in urban settings where dietary patterns and accessibility to food are different from that of rural areas.

Our main objectives to carry out a project are as follows:

• Fostering an environment in areas like Dharavi for making nutrition related habits a priority

• Creating evidence through impact assessment of indigenously made micronutrient fortified food item in recovering children from MAM

• Adopting to food types familiar to local community

• Using low cost ingredients while adhering to recommended dietary allowance (RDA) and WHO guidelines.

• Generating awareness about diet diversity among mothers through nutrition counseling

• Testing importance of community level interaction

• Validating the “academia-government-medical-NGO†partnership model for CMAM initiatives as a solution for urban malnutrition.

2. As the project involves participation from children and households, all regulatory approvals concerning quality of food products and methodology related tasks were procured. The ethics committee or LTMGH, Sion, reviewed the project proposal and granted clearance for the entire study duration.

3. **Sampling technique**

**Clustering of Anganwadis (AW):**The 300 Anganwadis under ICDS Dharavi area were divided into 19 clusters based on geographical proximity. Each cluster had approximately 12-15 AWs.

**Randomization of AWs into T and C group:** Randomization was conducted at two levels to minimize bias in sample selection. In the first step, the clusters were randomized into Treatment (T) and Control (C) clusters using computer generated random numbers.  In the second step, the AWs in the randomly selected T and C clusters were further subjected to randomization using the same method.

**Phase wise distribution of study:** For convenience in implementation, the entire study was carried out in three phases. Each Phase included 3 clusters each from the randomly selected T and C groups, except in Phase 3 wherein 4 clusters were included in T group.

**4. Screening and Recruitment of the children:**

- -          All children in the selected T and C anganwadi’s were screened by the respective anganwadi workers for height, weight and MUAC. Based on screening identified MAM children were referred to NRRTC, Chota Sion hospital for further assessment by medical team and possible enrollment in the project.

- -          After confirming the child as MAM (by the medical team) informed consent is taken and the child is enrolled in the study.

- -          If the child comes in treatment anganwadi , he/she receives intervention food and if the child comes in control anganwadi, he/she receives ICDS THR.

- -          The total duration of the project is 6 months wherein the child receives the supplementation for a period of 3 months and is followed up for 3 months after supplementation in both the groups.

- -          In this project data on socio economic status, feedback regarding food supplemented and anthropometric measurements was collected.

Detailed Description

Not available

Study Timeline

• Study Start: 2016-07-25
• Study Completion: 2018-01-31
• Last Update Posted: 2019-11-23

Recruitment & Eligibility

• Status: Completed
• Sex: All
• Target Recruitment: 200

Inclusion Criteria

1.Child should fall in MAM category 2.Child should not have any major illness 3.Child’s age should be between 6 months to 5 years.

Exclusion Criteria

• 1.If the child is SAM/Normal 2.Child with any major illness such as Tuberculosis, Down’s syndrome, Heart disease etc.
• 3.Child below 6 months of age and more than 5 years of age.

Study & Design

• Study Type: Interventional
• Study Design: Not specified

Primary Outcome Measures

Name	Time	Method
Improvements in weight, height and MUAC in intervention group as compared to the control group and consequent shift/transition of children from MAM to Normal category	Anthropometric measurements would be done at the time of enrollment, at the end of supplementation (3rd month) and at the end of 3rd month of follow up (6th month) at NRRTC, Chota Sion hospital | At community level, weight and MUAC would be measured weekly while height will be measured fortnightly

Secondary Outcome Measures

Name	Time	Method
1.Understanding the prevalence of Malnutrition in the community (Dharavi)	2.Understanding the correlations between various factors such as socio economic status, educational status, birth history, immunization, feeding pattern etc with the health status of children.

Trial Locations

Locations (1)

Urban Health Center (Chota Sion Hospital); 🇮🇳 Mumbai, MAHARASHTRA, India

Urban Health Center (Chota Sion Hospital)

🇮🇳Mumbai, MAHARASHTRA, India

Dr Alka Jadhav

Principal investigator

9769765309

nrrcproject@gmail.com