Isotope methods for evaluating the impact of the National Nutritional Program in Alagoas: methodological aspects and preliminary results

Revista Brasileira de Epidemiologia

Santos, Iná S.³  Haisma, Hinke²  Valente, Gicele C. M.²  Coitinho, Denise Costa¹  Valle, Neiva C. J.²  Gigante, Denise Petrucci³ 

[1]Ministério da Saúde

[2]UFPel

[3]Universidade Federal de Pelotas

关键词: Intervention studies;    Program evaluation;    Supplementary feeding;    Child;   

DOI  :  10.1590/S1415-790X2002000100008

学科分类：过敏症与临床免疫学

来源: SciELO

【 摘 要 】

OBJECTIVE:To describe methodological aspects and preliminary results of an interventiondesigned to measure the impact on child growth of nutritional programs deliveredto underweight children in a Northeastern state of Brazil.
METHODS: This is a natural longitudinal controlled experiment or quasiexperiment, in which intervention and control groups were compared at baselineand endpoint. Twenty municipalities of the state of Alagoas were selected througha coverage indicator of the nutritional program at the municipal level. Coveragewas estimated by the difference between the proportion of underweight childrenand the proportion of children actually reached by the nutritional program.The ten municipalities with higher coverage indicators were selected for theintervention group, those ten with lower coverage were selected for the controlgroup. Fifteen children that entered the program in each intervention municipalityand fifteen eligible children not included in the nutritional program were includedin the study.
RESULTS: A structured questionnaire and nutritional assessment were appliedon 111 children of the intervention group and 102 children of the control group.Baseline characteristics are presented. The demographic variables for mothersand children were similar in the intervention and control group. Children fromthe intervention group had lower family income and their parents had a lowerlevel of schooling. There was no difference in the nutritional characteristicsof the intervention and control group.
CONCLUSION: The preliminary results showed that the groups are comparablein terms of demographic and nutritional variables. The difference in the socioeconomiclevel between intervention and control group will be considered in the adjustedanalyses in the second phase of the study.

【 授权许可】

CC BY