The Effects of Yogurt Supplementation and Nutritional Education on Malnourished Infants: A Pilot RCT in Dhaka’s Slums

Jannat, Kaniz; Agho, Kingsley Emwinyore; Parvez, Sarker Masud; Rahman, Mahbubur; Thomson, Russell; Amin, Mohammed Badrul; Merom, Dafna

doi:10.3390/nu15132986

Open AccessArticle

The Effects of Yogurt Supplementation and Nutritional Education on Malnourished Infants: A Pilot RCT in Dhaka’s Slums

by

Kaniz Jannat

^1,*

,

Kingsley Emwinyore Agho

¹,

Sarker Masud Parvez

^2,3

,

Mahbubur Rahman

²

,

Russell Thomson

¹

,

Mohammed Badrul Amin

² and

Dafna Merom

¹

Centre for Research in Mathematics and Data Science, School of Health Sciences, Western Sydney University, Locked Bag 1797, Penrith, NSW 2751, Australia

²

Environmental Interventions Unit, Laboratory of Food Safety and One Health, Infectious Disease Division, Laboratory Sciences and Services Division, International Centre for Diarrhoeal Disease Research, Bangladesh (icddr,b), Dhaka 1212, Bangladesh

³

Children’s Health and Environment Program, Child Health Research Centre, The University of Queensland, South Brisbane, QLD 4101, Australia

^*

Author to whom correspondence should be addressed.

Nutrients 2023, 15(13), 2986; https://doi.org/10.3390/nu15132986

Submission received: 22 May 2023 / Revised: 26 June 2023 / Accepted: 27 June 2023 / Published: 30 June 2023

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Nutrition Programs and Policies for Maternal and Child Health)

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Abstract

Our objective was to quantify the effects of yogurt supplementation and nutrition education over three months on the linear growth of infants at risk of stunting. We conducted a three-arm pilot randomized controlled trial: (1) nutrition education for mothers; (2) nutrition education plus a daily yogurt supplement (50 g) for the index child; and (3) usual care (control). Dyads of children aged 4–6 months and at risk of stunting [length-for-age z-score (LAZ) ≤ −1 SD and >−2 SD] and their mothers with ≤10 years of education were eligible for the study. Participants were recruited from five slum areas in Dhaka, Bangladesh. Intention-to-treat (N = 162) and complete-case analyses (N = 127) showed no between-group statistically significant differences in LAZ or weight-for-age (WAZ). However, the yogurt group showed greater change in linear growth compared to the control (LAZ: mean difference 0.20, 95% CI: −0.06, 0.47, p-value 0.13), which was also slightly greater than the education-only group. Children in the yogurt plus group were five times (95% CI: 0.80, 31.80, p-value 0.09) more likely to meet the minimum dietary diversity (MDD) score compared to the control. A 3-month follow-up of this pilot study did not demonstrate that yogurt was beneficial to linear growth. However, there were encouraging trends that merit replication of the intervention with larger samples and longer follow-ups.

Keywords: yogurt; child growth; LMICs; Bangladesh; RCT

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MDPI and ACS Style

Jannat, K.; Agho, K.E.; Parvez, S.M.; Rahman, M.; Thomson, R.; Amin, M.B.; Merom, D. The Effects of Yogurt Supplementation and Nutritional Education on Malnourished Infants: A Pilot RCT in Dhaka’s Slums. Nutrients 2023, 15, 2986. https://doi.org/10.3390/nu15132986

AMA Style

Jannat K, Agho KE, Parvez SM, Rahman M, Thomson R, Amin MB, Merom D. The Effects of Yogurt Supplementation and Nutritional Education on Malnourished Infants: A Pilot RCT in Dhaka’s Slums. Nutrients. 2023; 15(13):2986. https://doi.org/10.3390/nu15132986

Chicago/Turabian Style

Jannat, Kaniz, Kingsley Emwinyore Agho, Sarker Masud Parvez, Mahbubur Rahman, Russell Thomson, Mohammed Badrul Amin, and Dafna Merom. 2023. "The Effects of Yogurt Supplementation and Nutritional Education on Malnourished Infants: A Pilot RCT in Dhaka’s Slums" Nutrients 15, no. 13: 2986. https://doi.org/10.3390/nu15132986

APA Style

Jannat, K., Agho, K. E., Parvez, S. M., Rahman, M., Thomson, R., Amin, M. B., & Merom, D. (2023). The Effects of Yogurt Supplementation and Nutritional Education on Malnourished Infants: A Pilot RCT in Dhaka’s Slums. Nutrients, 15(13), 2986. https://doi.org/10.3390/nu15132986

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The Effects of Yogurt Supplementation and Nutritional Education on Malnourished Infants: A Pilot RCT in Dhaka’s Slums

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