The effects on weight and attendance of a supplementary feeding programme operating in two under-5 clinics in Lesotho.
The routinely collected weight data of 2202 pre-school children who visited two under-5 clinics in Lesotho between 1978 and 1983 were used to calculate growth curves and to assess the effects of supplementary feeding. Up to the age of 5 months growth curves were above the NCHS reference. Growth started to decrease at the age of 3 months and stabilized at 11-13 months at the 10th percentile of the reference. The decrease of growth might have been due to environmental factors such as under-nutrition and disease. If this was the case, supplementary feeding might have had a positive impact on weight, but such an effect was not observed in this study. Supplementary feeding had, however, a positive effect on attendance rates and hence contributed to higher coverage of other under-5 clinic activities, such as immunization, health and nutrition education, and growth monitoring. Whether this positive effect warrants its extra cost remains open to question.
Tjon a Ten
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St James Mission Hospital, Mantsonyane, Lesotho.
Kusin
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de With
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D000554:Ambulatory Care Facilities; D001835:Body Weight; D005260:Female; D005522:Food Services; D006128:Growth; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D007227:Infant Nutritional Physiological Phenomena; D007927:Lesotho; D008297:Male; D010044:Outpatient Clinics, Hospital; D015397:Program Evaluation