Food & Nutrition

Arab Journal of Food & Nutrition
4. Evaluation of the Effect of a Nutritional Intervention Program on the Growth
of a Sample of Underweight Jordanian Children (1992)
Zuhair Ali Al-Arabi\ University of Jordan
Supervisor: Dr. Khader Al-Masri
Co-Supervisor: Dr. Ibrahim Al-Galani
This study was conducted in 1990 between September and December months in
the training Mother and Child Health Care Center (MCHC) in Amman. It included 64
children from both sexes ranging in age between 9-16 months and none of them
showed clinical signs of nutritional deficiencies. The objective of the study was to
evaluate the effect of the nutritional intervention using nutritional counseling program
on the growth of children whose weight for age was below 3rd percentile.
Nutritional status before and after the study was assessed, using anthropometric
measurements, clinical examinations, laboratory examinations, and food intake.
The children were divided into two matched groups(A & B) with respect to sex
and age. Each group consisted of a total of 32 children. A nutritional counseling
program was applied to group A. It included a pamphlet, which emphasized the use of
recipes based on locally available foodstuffs that satisfied their essential nutritional
needs for catch-up growth. Educational aids like posters, slides and lectures about the
program were also used. The nutritional counseling program that followed in the
MCHC center was applied for children in group B. Growth of the children in both
groups was monitored for a period of four months.
Laboratory examinations before and after the study showed that there were no
significant differences between the two groups with respect to hematocrit percentage
and serum albumin value, most of the hematocrit (31%) and albumin values (35g/L)
were within the acceptable level in both groups before and after the study.
The study also revealed that the program resulted in highly significant differences
(p