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A study was carried out to assess the effectiveness of a nutrition education intervention among women residing in the villages of Dodoma and
Morogoro regions of Tanzania. Prior to the intervention, a baseline survey was conducted in July-August 2016. The survey involved 663 women
who completed a pre-test assessment for nutrition knowledge and practice and enrolled in nutrition education intervention. The intervention
was carried out for 8 months (September 2017 to April 2018) including a 10 days group training per village with six-month individual training
follow-ups in the household. Spouses/ adult men were also invited to participate in the intervention. Training content included; functions of food,
food groups, malnutrition, food preparations, food consumption and homestead food production. Women were given a post-test during the endline
survey (July-August 2018) to assess the intervention. Nutrition knowledge (NK), Nutrition Practice (NP) as well as a combination of Nutrition
Knowledge and Practice (NKP) were computed using a scoring method as per FAO guidelines. The test was scored in a range of 0-10 for NK and NP
and 0-20 for NKP. The median scores before and after the intervention were compared using the Wilcoxon signed-rank test. The NKP scores among
sub-groups of respondents were computed using Mann–Whitney and Kruskal Wallis tests. Changes in proportions were calculated using a McNemar
test. Results indicated a significant increase in the post-intervention median scores (interquartile range) than the pre-intervention median scores
(interquartile range) for NK, NP, and NKP; 7(5,7) vs 4(3,5), 5(4,6) vs 3(2,4) and 12(10,13) vs 7(5,9) respectively, p<0.01. Higher scores were found
among those who had received nutrition education, those who had frequently been exposed to nutrition education, those whose spouses/men
participated in the intervention and those with a formal level of education than their counterparts. A significant increase in the frequencies of
consumption of vegetables, fruits and legumes were noted from the baseline to the post-intervention phase in the end-line (87%-98%, 63%-69%
and 76%-87%) respectively. The findings suggest the effectiveness of the nutrition education in the promotion of nutrition knowledge and desirable
dietary practices in farming households of Tanzania. |
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