Complementary feeding practices and associated factors of dietary diversity among uncomplicated severe acute malnourished children aged 6–23 months in Burkina Faso

Abstract

Nutritional treatment of children with uncomplicated severe acute malnutrition (SAM) is based on ready-to-use therapeutic foods (RUTF). With treatment provided at community level, children could have access to other foods, and a reduction in the dose of RUTF could further increase dietary diversity during treatment. We assessed the dietary diversity score (DDS), the minimum dietary diversity (MDD), the minimum meal frequency (MMF) and the minimum acceptable diet (MAD) of 459 infants and young children aged 6-23 months being treated for SAM with different doses of RUTF. We also investigated the factors associated with DDS. Dietary intake was estimated using a single 24-h multipass dietary recall, 1 month after starting treatment, from December 2016 to August 2018. The DDS was calculated on the basis of eight food groups. Differences between children receiving the reduced RUTF and the standard RUTF dose and factors associated with DDS were assessed by Poisson and logistic regression models. RUTF dose was not associated with DDS (4.07 ± 1.25 for reduced RUTF and 4.01 ± 1.26 for standard RUTF; P = 0.77). Food groups most consumed by children were grains, roots or tubers (96%) and legumes and nuts (72%). Eggs consumption was low (3%). DDS was positively associated with child's age, mother's education, household wealth index, urban residence and rainy season. The present findings show that children with SAM consumed a variety of foods during treatment in addition to the RUTF ration prescribed to them. Reducing the dose of RUTF during SAM treatment did not impact DDS.

Food consumption and dietary diversity associated with breastfeeding mod of children aged 6-23 months in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso

“…The predominance of these foods in diets is similar to the results of the SMART survey which found that these three food groups (cereals group, legumin's group and fruits group) were the most consumed in Burkina Faso in 2020 [29]. Other authors have also reported high consumption of cereals group, legumins group, vegetables and fruits group by children in Nigeria and Burkina Faso [28,30]. Meat products group (64.08%) and fruits and legumes rich in vitamin A group (53.56%) were also fairly consumed compared to the results of the SMART survey which reported the consumption of these food groups respectively at 47.2 % and 28.2% in the Central Region of Burkina Faso.…”

“…Regarding food consumption, cereals were the most consumed with a rate of 95.31%. Other authors had found similar rates with consumption of 94.4% in Zimbabwe [27] and 96% in Burkina Faso [28]. The other groups such as legumins, nuts and seeds group (83.01%) and other fruits and vegetables group (77.67%) were also mostly consumed.…”

“…The least consumed foods were dairy products group (47.25%) and more eggs group (5.83%). The consumption of dairy products was nevertheless higher than the 29% found in Uganda [33] and the rate of eggs consumption was higher than the 3% of eggs consumption reported in Burkina Faso in 2021 [28]. This situation could be explained by socio-cultural constraints.…”

Predictors of time to recovery and non-response during outpatient treatment of severe acute malnutrition

“…This study is based on data collected prospectively as part of a randomized controlled trial (called MANGO), which compared the efficacy of a reduced RUTF dose to a standard RUTF dose in the management of SAM without medical complications in children 6–59 months of age in a non-inferiority design. The results from the randomized controlled trial have been published elsewhere [ 16 – 22 ]. The study recruited a total of 801 children which provides a good sample size for analysing predictors compared to previous studies looking at time to recovery with samples sizes starting from 200 and most around 400 children treated [ 23 – 34 ].…”

Untitled

“…This study is based on data collected prospectively as part of a randomized controlled trial (called MANGO), which compared the efficacy of a reduced RUTF dose to a standard RUTF dose in the management of SAM without medical complications in children 6-59 months of age in a non-inferiority design. The results from the randomized controlled trial have been published elsewhere [16][17][18][19][20][21][22]. The study recruited a total of 801 children which provides a good sample size for analysing predictors compared to previous studies looking at time to recovery with samples sizes starting from 200 and most around 400 children treated [23][24][25][26][27][28][29][30][31][32][33][34].…”