Impact of Daily versus Weekly Supply of Locally Produced Ready-to-Use Food on Growth of Moderately Wasted Children on Nias Island, Indonesia

Ratna Chrismiari Purwestri; Veronika Scherbaum; Dyah Ayu Inayati; Nia Novita Wirawan; Julia Suryantan; Maurice Alexander Bloem; Rosnani Verba Pangaribuan; Wolfgang Stuetz; Volker Hoffmann; Matin Qaim; Hans Konrad Biesalski; Anne Camilla Bellows

doi:10.5402/2013/412145

Impact of Daily versus Weekly Supply of Locally Produced Ready-to-Use Food on Growth of Moderately Wasted Children on Nias Island, Indonesia

ISRN Nutr. 2013 Feb 27:2013:412145. doi: 10.5402/2013/412145. eCollection 2013.

Affiliations

¹ Department of Gender and Nutrition, Institute of Social Sciences in Agriculture, University of Hohenheim and Center of Gender and Nutrition, Schloss, Museumfluegel, 70593 Stuttgart, Germany ; Institute for Biological Chemistry and Nutrition, University of Hohenheim, 70593 Stuttgart, Germany ; Study Program Nutrition, Faculty of Medicine, University of Brawijaya, Malang 65145, Indonesia.
² Department of Gender and Nutrition, Institute of Social Sciences in Agriculture, University of Hohenheim and Center of Gender and Nutrition, Schloss, Museumfluegel, 70593 Stuttgart, Germany ; Institute for Biological Chemistry and Nutrition, University of Hohenheim, 70593 Stuttgart, Germany.
³ Department of Gender and Nutrition, Institute of Social Sciences in Agriculture, University of Hohenheim and Center of Gender and Nutrition, Schloss, Museumfluegel, 70593 Stuttgart, Germany.
⁴ Study Program Nutrition, Faculty of Medicine, University of Brawijaya, Malang 65145, Indonesia.
⁵ Church World Service, Jakarta 12560, Indonesia.
⁶ Church World Service, New York, NY 10115, USA.
⁷ SEAMEO TROPMED Regional Centre for Community Nutrition, University of Indonesia, Jakarta 10430, Indonesia.
⁸ Institute of Nutrition, Friedrich-Schiller-University of Jena, 07743 Jena, Germany.
⁹ Department of Agricultural Economics and Rural Development, University of Goettingen, 37073 Goettingen, Germany.
¹⁰ Institute for Biological Chemistry and Nutrition, University of Hohenheim, 70593 Stuttgart, Germany.
¹¹ Department of Gender and Nutrition, Institute of Social Sciences in Agriculture, University of Hohenheim and Center of Gender and Nutrition, Schloss, Museumfluegel, 70593 Stuttgart, Germany ; Department of Public Health, Food Studies, and Nutrition, David B. Falk College, Syracuse University, NY 13244, USA.

Abstract

This study reports the outcomes of daily (semi-urban areas) and weekly (remote rural regions) programs for moderately wasted children supplemented with locally produced ready-to-use foods in the form of fortified cereal/nut/legume-based biscuits on Nias Island, Indonesia (RUF-Nias biscuit). Thirty-four children in daily and twenty children in weekly programs aged ≥6 to <60 months with weight-for-height z-score (WHZ) ≥ -3 to < -2 SD were recruited (October 2007-June 2008) on Nias and admitted into existing nutrition centers in the Church World Service project area. Individual discharge criterion was WHZ ≥ -1.5 SD. Weight gain of the children in daily and weekly programs was 3.9 ± 3.8 and 2.0 ± 2.0 g/kg/day, respectively. A higher proportion of children in daily than weekly programs reached target WHZ (76% vs. 35%, P = 0.004). Weight gain at program discharge/closure was highly predicted (R (2) = 0.228, P < 0.001) by compliance to RUF biscuits: high vs. low compliance resulted in a 1.33 (95% CI 0.16 to 1.53) g/kg/day higher weight gain. Compliance and admission in daily programs were significant factors in reducing the risk of not reaching the discharge criterion. However, mothers complained more frequently about time constraints in the daily relative to weekly programs.