Clinical trial NCT01261182: Targeting School Feeding Programs at Vulnerable Sub-Groups
Official title: Study of School Feeding Programs' Impact on Anemia Status in Pre-adolescent Girls and Other Vulnerable Household Members in a Cluster-Randomized Trial in Uganda
Study type: INTERVENTIONAL
Overall status: COMPLETED
Phase: NA
Conditions: Malnutrition
Cognition
Keywords: Malnutrition
School feeding
Infant nutrition
Mother's nutrition
Fortified food
Anemia
Cluster randomized controlled trials
Effectiveness
Impact evaluation studies
Uganda
Lead sponsor: International Food Policy Research Institute
Sponsor class: OTHER
Collaborators: name: Makerere University
name: World Bank
name: United Nations World Food Programme (WFP)
name: UNICEF
First posted: 2010-12-16
Enrollment: 2083
Sex: ALL
Minimum age (years): 6
Maximum age (years): 13
Standard ages: CHILD
Allocation: RANDOMIZED
Intervention model: PARALLEL
Primary purpose: PREVENTION

Brief summary: School feeding programs provide students meals conditional on school attendance, which can have impacts on school participation, cognition and learning, and nutritional outcomes. Although the literature on impacts of school feeding programs is substantial, high quality studies with evaluation designs that provide causal impact estimates are relatively few. Thus program impacts on educational, cognitive and nutritional outcomes are not well-understood, particularly in a field setting. Nutritional impacts in particular are questionable, which may be a result program design. Most studies provide only small transfers to children and examine average macro-nutrient effects of the transfer on the treated children, thus it is not surprising that detection of nutritional gains has been minimal.

This study is a cluster-randomized evaluation of a school feeding program administered by the World Food Programme in the Northern Ugandan Districts of Lira and Pader. The program provides substantially larger food rations than most programs (representing 1/3 of children's daily caloric needs and 99% of iron intake requirements).

The key research objectives are:

1. Impact on the treated: Assess the effectiveness of the program at improving nutritional status, education and cognitive and learning outcomes for school-age children, with particular attention to the anemia status of older school-age girls .
2. Impact on untreated but nutritionally vulnerable sub-groups: Assess the effectiveness of the program at reducing anemia prevalence in mothers and younger siblings.
3. Optimal program design: Assess the differential impacts of a program in which children are fed at school compared with one in which they are given dry rations to bring home.


Eligibility criteria: Inclusion Criteria:

* School age children

Exclusion Criteria:

-

Primary outcomes:
measure: Mothers' and Children's Nutritional Status
timeFrame: 15 months
Secondary outcomes:
measure: Cognitive Performance
timeFrame: 15 months
measure: School achievement
timeFrame: 15 months
measure: School Participation
timeFrame: 15 months
Other outcomes:
Locations:
city: Lira
country: Uganda
facility: Lira District
city: Pader
country: Uganda
facility: Pader District
Study officials:
affiliation: IFPRI
name: Marie Ruel, PhD
role: PRINCIPAL_INVESTIGATOR
References:
citation: Adelman S, Gilligan DO, Konde-Lule J, Alderman H. School Feeding Reduces Anemia Prevalence in Adolescent Girls and Other Vulnerable Household Members in a Cluster Randomized Controlled Trial in Uganda. J Nutr. 2019 Apr 1;149(4):659-666. doi: 10.1093/jn/nxy305.