Reducing Child Undernutrition through Dietary Diversification, Reduced Aflatoxin Exposure, and Improved Hygiene Practices: The Immediate Impacts in Central Tanzania

Abstract

The study aimed to quantify the immediate effects of dietary diversification, food safety, and hygiene interventions on child undernutrition in four rural villages in Kongwa district of central Tanzania. One hundred mothers with their children of less than 24 months old were recruited for this study. The difference-in-difference (DID) method was used to assess the effects of intensive intervention through a learning-by-doing process on the topic of aflatoxin free diversified food utilization and improved hygiene practices. Periodic anthropometric measurements were conducted on the 0th, 7th, 14th, and 21st days, and DID estimator showed the significant and positive average marginal effects of the intervention on Z-Scores being 0.459, 0.252, and 0.493 for wasting, stunting, and underweight, respectively. Notably, at the end of the study, the mean aflatoxin M 1 level in urine samples decreased by 64% in the intervention group, while it decreased by 11% in the control group. The study provides quantitative evidence on intensive 21-day training for mothers incorporating integrated technologies yielded positive impacts on their children's nutritional outcomes.

Knowledge, Attitude and Practice of Malawian Farmers on Pre- and Post-Harvest Crop Management to Mitigate Aflatoxin Contamination in Groundnut, Maize and Sorghum—Implication for Behavioral Change

“…Although some levels of aflatoxin were detected in most of the crop samples even after the training, the levels of contamination reduced significantly despite the heavy rain and flood that occurred in the target areas. The result implies the effectiveness of the proper practices undertaken following the training such as drying and grading during the 2017-2018 season, which is consistent with our recent finding in Tanzania [23].…”

Complementary feeding in Kongwa, Tanzania: Findings to inform a mycotoxin mitigation trial

“…The mothers in the present study did not appear to be aware about mycotoxin contamination in ingredients of lishe. Some mothers did not sort maize, groundnuts or other cereals nor de-hull maize, practices that may influence mycotoxin contamination in complementary feeding porridge (Anitha et al, 2020;Mutegi et al, 2018). However, some mothers seemed to be knowledgeable about the effect of moisture on stored lishe and reported to dry the flour before storage.…”

“…The presence of mycotoxins in complementary foods may further contribute to poor child growth (Anitha et al, 2020;Kimanya et al, 2010). According to Tola and Kebede (2016), mycotoxins are harmful secondary metabolites of certain fungi that contaminate foods like cereal crops, leguminous plants and animal feeds and products, with negative impacts on human and animal health.…”

Childhood dietary exposure of aflatoxins and fumonisins in Tanzania: A review

“…In another study in Manyara region, AFs were detected in 32% of maize samples (mean 3.4 ± 0.3 μg/kg; range 2.1-16.2 μg/kg; Nyangi et al, 2016), whilst in a survey of AFM1 exposures in IYC in Kongwa and Kiteto districts around central Tanzania, Urinary exposure was detected with a mean and maximum levels of 57.1 pg/ml and 614 pg/ml, respectively (Anitha et al, 2020).…”

“…Training mothers or child caregivers, who are also farmers in most Tanzanian rural settings, on appropriate pre and post-harvest handling practices, is reported as one of the effective intervention to reduce mycotoxin exposure in maize used for complementary food (Anitha et al, 2020). In their study, Anitha et al (2020) exclusively focused on training of mothers (farmers) on dietary diversification, food safety and proper hygiene practices. They educated mothers on the consequences of AFs exposure and ways to reduce AFs contamination.…”