| Summary |
Undernutrition underlies more than one in three childhood deaths in Sub-Saharan Africa. In South Africa one in four children are stunted and one in three have Vitamin A deficiency. Growth monitoring and promotion (GMP) has the potential to prevent much undernutrition and to integrate the care of a child. It is central to the Governments Integrated Nutrition Programme (INP), and other childhood programmes such as the Integrated Management of Childhood Illness (IMCI). At a community level, GMP can also be a powerful tool for increasing community awareness of undernutrition and mobilising their action. |
| More Details |
Assessing GMP in the Mount Frere health district
In Mount Frere health district, Eastern Cape, a local inter-sectoral nutrition team has been established. It consists of representatives from within health (nutrition, maternal and child health, environmental health officers etc.) and from other sectors (education, welfare and agriculture). It has developed a district plan for the implementation of an Integrated Nutrition Programme. An important part of this was the assessment of the quality of nutrition actions in health facilities (see earlier kwik skwiz on Hospital Management of Severe Malnutrition). In order to assess the quality of growth monitoring the team developed a set of simple tools.
Data Collection Tools
Structured Observations
An observational checklist of activities which are important in the performance of GMP (i.e. nurse greeting the mother, discussion about the growth of the child, weighing technique, etc.)
Exit Interviews
Carers who had just attended the child clinic were interviewed and their road to health cards examined.
Case Studies
A series of growth charts were designed which showed normal growth, growth faltering, growth failure and catch up growth. Nurses were asked to interpret the charts and to state what advice they would give the mothers based on the growth patterns.
Structured
Interviews Possible reasons for the poor performance of GMP were explored through interviews with a selection of clinic nurses using a semi-structured interview schedule.
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