Determinants of nutrition improvement in a large-scale urban project: a follow-up study of children participating in the Senegal Community Nutrition Project.

Objective: To study individual determinants of differential benefit from the Senegal Community Nutrition Project (CNP) by monitoring improvement in children's weight-for-age index (WA) or underweight status (WA < -2 Z-scores) during participation.

Design: A follow-up study using the CNP child monitoring data. Linear general models compared variations in WA according to 14 factors describing the beneficiaries and CNP services.

Process evaluation of the Senegal-Community Nutrition Project: an adequacy assessment of a large scale urban project.

Objective: Although essential for understanding the reasons for success or failure of large scale nutritional interventions, process evaluation results are rarely reported. Our objective was to assess whether the process output objectives of the Community Nutrition Project (CNP) in Senegal, West Africa, were adequately met.

Methods: An adequacy assessment study based on monitoring data for individuals collected during the CNP was used to assess 'fidelity', 'extent' and 'reach' of participants recruitment and of the services provided.

Use of hand-to-hand impedancemetry to predict body composition of African women as measured by air displacement plethysmography.

Objectives: To test the validity of a simple, rapid, field-adapted, portable hand-held impedancemeter (HHI) for the estimation of lean body mass (LBM) and percentage body fat (%BF) in African women, and to develop specific predictive equations.

Design: Cross-sectional observational study.

Settings: Dakar, the capital city of Senegal, West Africa.