Ruel M T, Habicht J P
Institute of Nutrition of Central America and Panama, Pan American Health Organization, Guatemala.
J Nutr. 1992 Sep;122(9):1772-80. doi: 10.1093/jn/122.9.1772.
A study done in Lesotho in 1985-1986 assessed whether growth charts increased the impact of nutrition education and growth monitoring on maternal learning about weaning practices and diarrhea. Seven hundred and seventy six mothers were given three monthly sessions of group nutrition education along with growth monitoring of children and individual counseling. Growth charts, which were taught to one of two groups, fostered learning but only on issues related to diarrhea and only among new clinic attendants, mothers with less than secondary schooling and mothers of malnourished children. These benefits, however, were small (differences less than 10%) compared with the overall impact of the nutrition education and growth monitoring intervention (increases between baseline and post-intervention were greater than 50% for some questions). Our findings suggest that well-designed clinic-based nutrition education and growth monitoring can have a significant impact on maternal nutrition knowledge. Teaching growth charts to mothers may not be necessary for obtaining such results in programs conducted under ideal conditions. More research is needed to determine under what circumstances, for what purposes and for whom growth charts may be beneficial.
1985年至1986年在莱索托进行的一项研究评估了生长图表是否增强了营养教育和生长监测对母亲了解断奶做法和腹泻的影响。776名母亲接受了为期三个月的集体营养教育课程，同时对儿童进行生长监测并提供个别咨询。生长图表被传授给两组中的一组，它促进了学习，但仅限于与腹泻相关的问题，且仅在新就诊者、未接受过中等教育的母亲以及营养不良儿童的母亲中。然而，与营养教育和生长监测干预的总体影响相比，这些益处较小（差异小于10%）（对于一些问题，干预前后的增幅大于50%）。我们的研究结果表明，精心设计的基于诊所的营养教育和生长监测可对母亲的营养知识产生重大影响。在理想条件下开展的项目中，向母亲传授生长图表对于取得此类结果可能并非必要。需要更多研究来确定在何种情况下、出于何种目的以及对哪些人而言生长图表可能有益。
