Objective To examine nutrition status and intervention effect of nutrition improvement program among infants aged 6 – 24 months in poverty-stricken areas of Anhui province.
Methods We conducted three waves of survey in four poverty-stricken counties with National Nutrition Improvement Program which supplemented a nutrition package to all 6 – 24 months old children in the counties from 2014. Using multi-stage probability proportionate to size sampling combined with equidistance sampling, we selected 1 314, 1 245, and 1 297 infants aged 6 – 24 months in the four counties before, one year after, and two years after the implementation of the program and performed physical development and peripheral blood hemoglobin measurement to evaluate the effect of the nutrition intervention among the infants.
Results Compared to those before the implementation of the program, the mean weight increased by 0.33 kilogram; the mean height increased by 0.94 centimeter; the weight-for-age Z-score (WAZ) increased by 0.11; the weight-for-height Z-score (WHZ) increased by 0.13; the mean concentration of hemoglobin increased from 114.86 g/L to 118.13 g/L; the detection rate of anemia decreased from 29.04% to 19.71% one year after the implementation of the program among the infants. The anemia rate of infants aged 6 – 11 months was significantly higher than that of other age groups; although dropped from 41.81% to 33.07% two years after the nutrition intervention, the rate was still higher than that of national average in 2010.
Conclusion The nutrition status was improved markedly after the implementation of National Nutrition Improvement Program among the 6 – 24 infants in poverty-stricken areas of Anhui province, indicating that the program achieved desired result.
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