Seasonal variation of wasting and stunting in preschool children during a three-year community-based nutritional intervention study in northeast Thailand.

A nutritional intervention project was undertaken for three years in four villages located in a relatively prosperous irrigation area in northeast Thailand where sub-clinical undernutrition is still prevalent. Data were collected at each measuring pont from approximately 270 preschool children in four intervention villages. Approximately 120 children in three other villages in the same area served as controls for each measuring point. Various activities such as teaching nutrition, introducing supplementary feeding, and using and understanding weight charts, as well as home visits, were carried out in the intervention villages. An obvious improvement in the nutritional status of children in the intervention villages could be observed only after two years and nine months. In order that immediate action could be taken when a child was found to be undernourished or at risk of becoming undernourished in the near future, the nutritional indicator weight-for-height was used to assess the children's nutritional status. However, the best indicator determining the impact of the project was height-for-age. Intervention measures were successful in diminishing marked seasonal variations in the nutritional status observed in the study area. Statistical methods are given to evaluate a prospective study based on an incomplete repeated measure method.