Effectiveness of an educational intervention on complementary feeding practices and growth in rural China: a cluster randomised controlled trial.

Objective: Inappropriate complementary feeding is one of the major causes of malnutrition in young children in developing countries. We developed an educational intervention, delivered by local health-care providers, aimed at improving complementary feeding practices and child nutrition.

Design: Eight townships in Laishui, a rural area in China, were randomly assigned to the educational intervention or control group. A total of 599 healthy infants were enrolled at age 2-4 months and followed up until 1 year of age. In the intervention group, educational messages and enhanced home-prepared recipes were disseminated to caregivers through group trainings and home visits. Questionnaire surveys and anthropometric measurements were taken at baseline and ages 6, 9 and 12 months. Analysis was by intention to treat.

Results: It was found that food diversity, meal frequency and hygiene practices were improved in the intervention group. Infants in the intervention group gained 0.22 kg more weight (95 % CI 0.003, 0.45 kg, P = 0.047) and gained 0.66 cm more length (95 % CI 0.03, 1.29 cm, P = 0.04) than did controls over the study period.

Conclusions: Findings from the study suggest that an educational intervention delivered through local health-care providers can lead to substantial behavioural changes of caregivers and improve infant growth.