Infant and young child feeding practices in two provinces of Afghanistan: results from two rounds of large country-lot quality assurance sampling surveys

Authors

  • Ibrahim Shinwari Deputy Minister for General Education of the Ministry of Education (MoE), Afghanistan
  • Ahmad Wali Aminee Senior Capacity Development Advisor, USAID-IHSAN project, Afghanistan
  • Kirti Warvadekar Regional Program Officer, Research & Evaluation, Asia, Nutrition International, New Delhi, India
  • Payal Gupta Regional Manager, Monitoring and Reporting, Asia, Nutrition International, New Delhi, India
  • Deepika Nayar Chaudhery Former Deputy Regional Director, Asia, Nutrition International, New Delhi, India
  • Manoj Kumar Raut Regional Manager, Research and Evaluation, Asia, Nutrition International, Asia Regional Office, New Delhi, India

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.18203/2394-6040.ijcmph20184565

Keywords:

LC-LQAS, Infant and young child feeding, Wardak, Laghman, Afghanistan

Abstract

Background: As per NNS 2013, about 58% of the infants aged 0-5 months were exclusively breastfed. The data also shows that only 41% infants 6-8 months of age were introduced solid, semi-solid and soft foods. Further only 28% of children aged 6-23 months received foods from four or more food groups during last 24 hours preceding the survey. Suboptimal IYCF practices are therefore considered to be an important contributor to the high rates of under nutrition in Afghanistan. The program monitoring at two time points was conducted to inform the program about the current status of the program activities and any course correction required. It was also meant to inform the government and other stakeholders on the feasibility of program strategies in improving IYCF practices and recommendations for scale-up programs.

Methods: The program monitoring was performed before and after the (IYCN) program roll out in Wardak and Laghman provinces of Afghanistan. To understand and monitor the status of process and program indicators, a Large Country-Lot Quality Assurance Sampling (LC-LQAS) study design was adopted.

Results: Minimum acceptable diet was observed to be 54% (95% CI: 46%, 61%) in the second round, which was 44% (95% CI: 35%, 53%) in the first round.

Conclusions: Minimum acceptable diet among the children of age group 6-23 months was found to be consistently doing well in both the rounds. LC-LQAS was found to be an apt method to estimate the IYCN indicators at time points with low resource use.

References

Ministry of Public Health (MoPH), National Nutrition Survey (NNS), Afghanistan, 2004.

Ministry of Public Health, UNICEF and the Aga Khan University (AKU). 2013. National Nutrition Survey, Afghanistan, 2013.

Central Statistics Organization (CSO), Ministry of Public Health (MoPH), and ICF. Afghanistan Demographic and Health Survey, 2015. Kabul, Afghanistan: Central Statistics Organization, 2017.

Hedt, Bethany, Olives C, Pagano M, Valadez JJ. Large Country-Lot Quality Assurance Sampling: A New Method for Rapid Monitoring and Evaluation of Health, Nutrition and Population Programs at Sub-National Levels”. Health Nutrition and Population Series. The World Bank. Washington DC. 2008.

Dodge, Harold F, Romig HG. Sampling Inspection Tables: Single and Double Sampling. New York: John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 1959

World Health Organization, UNICEF, IFPRI, University of UC Davis, FANTA 2, AED, USAID. Indicators for assessing infant and young child feeding practices: Part 1: Definitions: Conclusions of a consensus meeting held 6–8 November 2007 in Washington D.C., USA, 2010.

World Health Organization, UNICEF, IFPRI, University of UC Davis, FANTA 2, AED, USAID. Indicators for assessing infant and young child feeding practices: Part 2: Measurement: Conclusions of a consensus meeting held 6–8 November 2007 in Washington D.C., USA. 2010.

Tchibindat, Felicite, Maroof Z. Caring Practices Formative Research in Panjsheer Valley Community, Parwan, Afghanistan. Afghanistan: United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), 2003.

Tchibindat, Felicite, Maroof Z. Caring Practices Formative Research in Gozara, Herat, Afghanistan. Afghanistan: United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), 2003.

Save the Children. Breastfeeding and Weaning Beliefs and Practices in Parts of Northern Afghanistan. Afghanistan Office: Save the Children, 2002.

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Published

2018-10-25

How to Cite

Shinwari, I., Aminee, A. W., Warvadekar, K., Gupta, P., Chaudhery, D. N., & Raut, M. K. (2018). Infant and young child feeding practices in two provinces of Afghanistan: results from two rounds of large country-lot quality assurance sampling surveys. International Journal Of Community Medicine And Public Health, 5(11), 4761–4767. https://doi.org/10.18203/2394-6040.ijcmph20184565

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Section

Original Research Articles