IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jijerp/v19y2022i22p15305-d977904.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Effect of a Child-Owned Poultry Intervention Providing Eggs on Nutrition Status and Motor Skills of Young Children in Southern Ethiopia: A Cluster Randomized and Controlled Community Trial

Author

Listed:
  • Anteneh Omer

    (School of Human Nutrition and Food Science, Hawassa University, Hawassa P.O. Box 5, Ethiopia)

  • Dejene Hailu

    (School of Public Health, Hawassa University, Hawassa P.O. Box 5, Ethiopia)

  • Susan J. Whiting

    (College of Pharmacy and Nutrition, University of Saskatchewan, Saskatoon, SK S7N 5E5, Canada)

Abstract

Eggs are highly nutritious foods, yet intake by children in Ethiopia is low. We hypothesized that a nutrition-sensitive poultry intervention improves nutritional status of children 6–18 months using a 6-month cluster randomized controlled community trial. Intervention group (IG) children received a gift of two egg-laying hens in a ceremony where children’s ownership of the chickens was declared by community leaders. Parents promised to add more hens and feed the owner-child one-egg-a-day. Trained community workers reinforced egg feeding, environmental sanitation and poultry husbandry. Control group (CG) mothers received usual nutrition education on child feeding. At baseline 29.6% of children were stunted, 19.4% underweight and 8.6% wasted. Egg consumption significantly increased only in IG, at 6 months. The intervention increased weight-for-age and weight-for-height z-scores by 0.38 (95% CI = 0.13–0.63) and 0.43 (95% CI = 0.21–0.64), respectively. Binary logit model indicated IG children were 54% (Odds ratio [OR] = 0.46; 95% CI = 0.26–0.84) and 42% (OR = 0.58; 95% CI = 0.37–0.91) less likely to be underweight and stunted, respectively, compared to CG. IG children attained the milestone of running ( p = 0.022; AHR = 1.43; 95% CI = 1.05–1.95), kicking a ball ( p = 0.027; AHR = 1.39; 95% CI = 1.04–1.87) and throwing a ball ( p = 0.045; AHR = 1.37; 95% CI = 1.01–1.86) earlier than CG. This nutrition-sensitive child-owned poultry approach should be implemented where animal-source food intake is low.

Suggested Citation

  • Anteneh Omer & Dejene Hailu & Susan J. Whiting, 2022. "Effect of a Child-Owned Poultry Intervention Providing Eggs on Nutrition Status and Motor Skills of Young Children in Southern Ethiopia: A Cluster Randomized and Controlled Community Trial," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(22), pages 1-17, November.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:19:y:2022:i:22:p:15305-:d:977904
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/19/22/15305/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/19/22/15305/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Zulkarnaen Zulkarnaen, 2019. "The Influence of Nutritional Status on Gross and Fine Motor Skills Development in Early Childhood," Asian Social Science, Canadian Center of Science and Education, vol. 15(5), pages 1-75, May.
    2. Alderman, Harold & Gilligan, Daniel O. & Leight, Jessica & Mulford, Michael & Tambet, Heleene, 2022. "The role of poultry transfers in diet diversity: A cluster randomized intent to treat analysis," Food Policy, Elsevier, vol. 107(C).
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Anteneh Omer & Dejene Hailu & Susan Joyce Whiting, 2023. "Child-Owned Poultry Intervention Effects on Hemoglobin, Anemia, Concurrent Anemia and Stunting, and Morbidity Status of Young Children in Southern Ethiopia: A Cluster Randomized Controlled Community T," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 20(7), pages 1-16, April.
    2. Daniel Ayalew Mekonnen, 2024. "Does household’s food and nutrient acquisition capacity predict linear growth in children? Analysis of longitudinal data from rural and small towns in Ethiopia," Food Security: The Science, Sociology and Economics of Food Production and Access to Food, Springer;The International Society for Plant Pathology, vol. 16(2), pages 533-550, April.
    3. Francesca Serio & Antonella De Donno & Giuseppe Valacchi, 2023. "Lifestyle, Nutrition, and Environmental Factors Influencing Health Benefits," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 20(7), pages 1-3, March.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Isaac Gershon Kodwo Ansah & Cornelis Gardebroek & Rico Ihle, 2025. "Simulating policy options for improving household resilience to food demand shocks in the context of West Africa," Natural Resources Forum, Blackwell Publishing, vol. 49(1), pages 578-613, February.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:19:y:2022:i:22:p:15305-:d:977904. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.