Adolescence is a critical period in life for healthy growth. Malnutrition during this seminal period can have long-term negative effects on health and development. Adolescent nutrition programs are lacking in sub-Saharan Africa. Adolescent malnutrition is an urgent problem in sub-Saharan Africa, where there is a long history of undernutrition and a growing problem of overweight and obesity.
Results of a new study suggest that a four-component school-based nutrition intervention package improved diet quality for adolescents and their families and reduced malnutrition among adolescents, including undernutrition and obesity. . The intervention consists of her four components: school lunches, nutrition education, school grounds, and community workshops.
“Our findings highlight the potential for school transformation as a promising platform to combat all forms of adolescent malnutrition. “This study provides evidence of the feasibility and potential effectiveness of a four-part nutritional intervention package,” said Wang, corresponding author and co-lead author with Leonard K. Catalambola of the University of Dodoma. he said. Wafaie Fawzi of Harvard University’s TH Chan School of Public Health is the principal investigator.
Researchers conducted a cluster randomized controlled trial in Dodoma, Tanzania, to evaluate the effectiveness of a school-based integrated nutrition intervention package for adolescents over one school year. Two schools received her full four-part intervention package, two schools received a partial intervention package that did not include the school lunch component, and two schools received no intervention. This intervention package aims to improve youth nutrition by providing nutritious food, improving nutrition knowledge and practices, and building nutrition and agricultural capacity in households and communities. did.
Baseline data on adolescent and parent outcomes were collected at the beginning of the school year prior to implementation of the intervention. Final data on the same research outcomes were collected at the end of the academic year. At the end of the year, adolescents and parents in schools that received the intervention had better diet quality than those in schools that did not receive the intervention. The benefits of the intervention on parental diet quality suggest that spillover effects of the intervention on families and communities can be expected. Additionally, adolescents in intervention schools were at lower risk of being overweight or obese and had greater nutritional knowledge than adolescents in non-intervention schools.
“To date, school-based nutrition interventions have often been implemented and evaluated as standalone programs without being harmonized as a package or properly integrated into the local food environment. The intervention is now more scalable and sustainable,” Wang said. “To realize the full transformative potential of secondary schools and maximize the effectiveness of evidence-based interventions, it is important to combine independent intervention components into intervention packages that are well integrated into the school environment.”
“Food, education, and gardens for adolescents in schools: A cluster-randomized trial of an adolescent nutrition intervention package in Tanzania” was published online in the Journal of Adolescent Health in April 2024. This research was supported by the IZUMI Foundation. Mr. Abbas Ismail, Mr. Augustine Marrero, and Mr. Saeed Bouai from the University of Dodoma. Andrea R. Modesto, Amani Tinkasimire, and Mary Mwanyika Sando of the African Academy of Public Health; Her colleagues Dayana Bray and Haley Cinq-Mars of Harvard University are additional co-authors on the paper.
