Student Research Committee, Urmia University of Medical Sciences, Urmia 571478334, Iran.
Department of Health Information Technology, School of Allied Medical Sciences, Urmia University of Medical Sciences, Urmia 571478334, Iran.
Nutrients. 2020 Feb 24;12(2):587. doi: 10.3390/nu12020587.
The mothers' nutritional literacy is an important determinant of child malnourishment. We assessed the effect of a smartphone-based maternal nutritional education programme for the complementary feeding of undernourished children under 3 years of age in a food-secure middle-income community. The study used a randomised controlled trial design with one intervention arm and one control arm ( = 110; 1:1 ratio) and was performed at one well-child clinic in Urmia, Iran. An educational smartphone application was delivered to the intervention group for a 6-month period while the control group received treatment-as-usual (TAU) with regular check-ups of the child's development at the well-child centre and the provision of standard nutritional information. The primary outcome measure was change in the indicator of acute undernourishment (i.e., wasting) which is the weight-for-height z-score (WHZ). Children in the smartphone group showed greater wasting status improvement (WHZ +0.65 (95% Confidence Interval (CI) ± 0.16)) than children in the TAU group (WHZ +0.31 (95% CI ± 0.21); = 0.011) and greater reduction (89.6% vs. 51.5%; = 0.016) of wasting caseness (i.e., WHZ < -2; yes/no). We conclude that smartphone-based maternal nutritional education in complementary feeding is more effective than TAU for reducing undernourishment among children under 3 years of age in food-secure communities.
母亲的营养素养是儿童营养不良的一个重要决定因素。我们评估了一种基于智能手机的母亲营养教育计划对粮食安全的中等收入社区中 3 岁以下营养不良儿童补充喂养的效果。该研究采用随机对照试验设计，干预组和对照组各有 110 名参与者（1:1 比例），在伊朗乌尔米亚的一家儿童保健诊所进行。在 6 个月的时间里，向干预组提供了一个教育用智能手机应用程序，而对照组则接受常规治疗（TAU），包括在儿童保健中心定期检查儿童发育情况，并提供标准营养信息。主要结局指标是急性营养不良（即消瘦）指标的变化，即体重与身高的 Z 分数（WHZ）。与 TAU 组相比，智能手机组的儿童消瘦状况改善更明显（WHZ +0.65（95%置信区间 ± 0.16）），而 TAU 组则为（WHZ +0.31（95%置信区间 ± 0.21）； = 0.011），消瘦发生率（即 WHZ < -2；是/否）也更低（89.6% vs. 51.5%； = 0.016）。我们得出结论，与常规治疗相比，基于智能手机的补充喂养母亲营养教育更有效，可以减少粮食安全社区中 3 岁以下儿童的营养不良。
