Nutritional Status of Children after a Food-Supplementation Program Integrated with Routine

Health Care through Mobile Clinics in Migrant Communities in the Dominican Republic

The mortality rate of children is significantly high. In 2009 around 10 million children

died and it was estimated that about 3.5 million of those deaths were preventable. (Parikh,2010)

With the increase of technology and medical advancements including knowledge. It is only

reasonable that we strive to reduce the mortality rate of children 1-18 years old. Maternal and

child under nutrition is the underlying factor of 3.5 million deaths or 35% of the disease burden

in children less than 5 years of age (Parikh,2010). Malnutrition is an ongoing problem

especially for developing countries. In another study done by Suriadji in 2015; It was found that

malnutrition affects approximately 50% of hospitalized children and 25-70% of critically ill

children.(Suriadji, 2015) These facts are the reason that many groups have attempted to create

programs to help feed kids. Parikh and his group established food supplementation programs in

5 rural communities in the Dominican Republic in the hopes of finding statically proven ways to

combat malnutrition effectively.

In the study that was conducted they included data from children ages 18 and younger

that received routine health care from one of the 5 clinics they set up. In order for them to record

their results they measured the height and weight of each child that came to one of the clinics.

After measuring height and weight they used the US Centers for Disease Control and

Prevention (CDC) 2000 growth charts to categorize each child.(Parikh, 2010) By recording this

evidence they would be able to track the success and impact of the clinics. The clinics set up

provided food package supplements to their target population in their communities and gave

easier access to routine health care by cutting costs of travel for participants. The food

supplement packages were relatively cheap 70 pesos which is approximately 2 U.S. Dollars.
(Parikh, 2010) At the start of the study there were 175 children participants 91 Females (52%),

0-5 year olds accounted for 59%, 6-11 year olds (32%), and 12<(9%). (Parikh, 2010)

At the end of the year long study they saw improvements in certain age groups/different

severities of malnutrition. At the start of the study those that had acute malnutrition were

organized in four separate groups Normal, Mild, Moderate, and Severe. The same method was

used for children that fell in the Chronic Malnutrition category. At the beginning of the study 60

percent of acutely malnourished children were categorized as normal while those who fell in the

Mild were 33% and 7% for Moderate. By the end of the study they saw significant

improvements in the decreasing of Moderate and Mild Acute Malnutrition. Mild Acute

Malnutrition went down from 33% to 20% and respectively Moderate went down from 7% to

3%. On the Other hand Normal Acute Malnutrition increased from 60% to 77%. One

explanation for the increase of Normal Acute Malnutrition could be due to the fact that over the

studies time period the children who fell in worse categories of Mild and Moderate acute

malnutrition only increased enough to be categorized as Normal Acute Malnutrition. Similar

results were seen in Chronic Malnutrition result which showed increases in Normal Acute

Malnutrition from 67% to 82% and decreases in Mild Acute Malnutrition 21% to 15%, Moderate

Acute Malnutrition 21% to 15%, Moderate Acute Malnutrition 9% to 2%, and Severe Acute

Malnutrition 3% to 1%.

In concluding it was found in these studies that supplying healthcare and food

supplement packages were effective in fighting against Malnutrition. Although great strides of

improvement werent seen in chronic Malnutrition part of this can be attributed to the small

sample size and short time frame of implementation. Its undeniable that these programs will be

able to help fight malnutrition better the longer they are in place. As for other limitations of this
study. Its important to note that not all the food supplements made it to their designated

individual.
 Works Cited

Parikh, K., Marein-Efron, G., Huang, S., O'hare, G., Finalle, R., & Shah, S. S. (2010).
Nutritional Status of Children after a Food-Supplementation Program Integrated with
Routine Health Care through Mobile Clinics in Migrant Communities in the Dominican
Republic. American Journal of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene,83(3), 559-564.
doi:10.4269/ajtmh.2010.09-0485
Suriadji, D., Wati, D. K., Sidiartha, I. L., Suparyatha, I. B., & Hartawan, I. B. (2017). Prevalence
and association of cost and hospital malnutrition in Pediatric Intensive Care Unit Sanglah
Hospital during 2015. Critical Care & Shock, 20(1), 10-16.