Nutritional status of pre-school children and women in selected villages in the Suvannakhet Province, Lao PDR -an intervention trial
A project to promote the health and nutritional status of women and preschool children was started from 1995 to 1997 in three villages in Suvannakhet Province, Lao PDR. One village served as control. In 1995, for the baseline survey, 456 females, and in 1997, for the final evaluation, 363 females from the four villages volunteered for further investigations. An attempt was made to involve all females in the reproductive age residing in the villages. At the same time also the nutritional status of 321 and about 540 randomly selected pre-school children respectively was also assessed through physical examination and anthropometric measurements. Intervention measures included introducing growth charts and taking regular anthropometric measurements of women in the reproductive age and of pre-school children. Training in nutritional aspects such as giving colostrum to new-borns, prepare proper weaning food and supplementary feeding, animal-raising and home gardening was also introduced and provided to health personnel, village leaders and in women clubs. Special attention was given to the control of acute infectious diseases. The conventional EPI program was enforced as well. Health education in matters of mother and child health care was also provided. The proportion of undernourished women was rather high at about 15%. For pre-school children, the proportion of wasting was around 5%, and of stunting 50% and above. Intervention did not improve the nutritional status either of the women or of the children. It was concluded that the time span of two years is too short for a decrease in the proportion of undernourishment to be observed. An improvement was achieved for some indicators of mother and child health care. This seems to indicate the population's willingness to follow suggestions to improve their health. Most probably, if attempts to improve the nutritional status were continued, an improvement in this aspect could also be observed, if the population can be encouraged to take actions and develop initiatives by themselves.