Dietary Diversity of Young Children During CoVID-19 Outbreak: A Longitudinal Study

Dietary Diversity Clinical Trial

— CoDDYC  

Official title:

Dietary Diversity of Young Children During CoVID-19 Outbreak: A Longitudinal Study

Clinical Trial Details — Status: Completed

Administrative data

• NCT number: NCT04447209
• Other study ID #: 2020410-8500
• Status: Completed
• Start date: June 6, 2020
• Est. completion date: March 31, 2022

Study information

• Verified date: October 2022
• Source: University of Malaya
• Contact: n/a
• Is FDA regulated: No
• Study type: Observational

Clinical Trial Summary

The 2019-2020 coronavirus pandemic has had far-reaching consequences beyond the spread of the disease. Quarantine measures during a public health pandemic can be particularly detrimental to urban poor families and affect the dietary diversity and food security. This can disproportionately affect young children aged 6 and below, and severely impact those <2 years. Sudden unemployment may result in an unexpected reduction in income that will place pressure on daily budgets for food. Children of families may not have access to foods of adequate diversity that will enable them to meet their macro and micronutrient requirements for growth and development, especially during the Movement Control Order (MCO). The study plans to monitor and evaluate dietary diversity in young children's food intake after the MCO and use the collected information to direct targeted food aid to address observed macro- and micronutrient deficiencies among the urban vulnerable group.

Description:

Children are the future to our society. The first thousand days of life, starting from conception till one's second birthday is a critical period of cognitive and physical development. It is the most sensitive period where brain development is most receptive to positive nutrition. Any form of malnutrition, especially during this golden time frame, can lead to irreversible effects to growth, health, education and future career attainment to our potential leaders, which in turn can be a barrier to human development.

The CoVID outbreak is a unique period in recent human history where drastic public health measures such as MCO for an extended period of time has to be implemented nation-wide. These measures have untold severe consequences on the food security of the vulnerable urban group, in particular the young children whose brains require diverse micronutrients to support the rapid growth. These micronutrients can only be obtained from a daily diet that is equally diverse, especially from fresh vegetables and fruits which will be short in supplies. These perishable food items are not usually included in food aids, thus the child may have to subsist on staple-rich diet which are energy-dense but nutrient-poor. These dietary practices are associated with negative health outcomes. Thus by monitoring dietary diversity of the children, we hope to better inform food aid organisations to consider the inclusion of healthier food options to prevent micronutrient deficiencies.

Recruitment information / eligibility

• Status: Completed
• Enrollment: 469
• Est. completion date: March 31, 2022
• Est. primary completion date: December 31, 2021
• Accepts healthy volunteers: Accepts Healthy Volunteers
• Gender: All
• Age group: 6 Months to 6 Years

Eligibility

Inclusion Criteria:

• All well-children aged between 6 months and 6 years

Exclusion Criteria:

• Children with chronic illnesses

Related Conditions & MeSH terms

• Dietary Diversity

Intervention

Other:
• Dietary counselling on Food Groups according to IYC Feeding practices, WHO
Monitoring of Dietary diversity and growth

Locations

Country	Name	City	State
Malaysia	University of Malaya Medical Center	Kuala Lumpur	Wilayah Persekutuan Kuala Lumpur

Sponsors (1)

Lead Sponsor	Collaborator
University of Malaya

Country where clinical trial is conducted

Malaysia, 

References & Publications (6)

Cusick SE, Georgieff MK. The Role of Nutrition in Brain Development: The Golden Opportunity of the "First 1000 Days". J Pediatr. 2016 Aug;175:16-21. doi: 10.1016/j.jpeds.2016.05.013. Epub 2016 Jun 3. — View Citation

Kennedy GL, Pedro MR, Seghieri C, Nantel G, Brouwer I. Dietary diversity score is a useful indicator of micronutrient intake in non-breast-feeding Filipino children. J Nutr. 2007 Feb;137(2):472-7. — View Citation

Steyn NP, Nel JH, Nantel G, Kennedy G, Labadarios D. Food variety and dietary diversity scores in children: are they good indicators of dietary adequacy? Public Health Nutr. 2006 Aug;9(5):644-50. — View Citation

Working Group on Infant and Young Child Feeding Indicators. Developing and validating simple indicators of dietary quality of infants and young children in developing countries: Additional analysis of 10 data sets. Report submitted to: the Food and Nutrition Technical Assistance (FANTA) Project/Academy for Educational Development (AED), July 2007

World Health Organization, Geneva. 2017; Global Nutritional Monitoring Framework: Operational guidance for tracking progress in meeting targets for 2025

World Health Organization. Indicators for assessing infant and young child feeding practices Part 1: Definitions. Geneva: WHO; 2008

Outcome

Type	Measure	Description	Time frame	Safety issue
Primary	Minimal Dietary Diversity (MDD) of more than 5 food groups in 24 hours	Number of food groups in 24 hours	24 hours
Primary	Height	Height increase in centimetres	4 months
Primary	Weight	Weight increase in kilogram	4 months
Primary	Meal frequencies in past 24 hours	Number of meal frequencies	24 hours
Secondary	Blood hemoglobin in children at the start of study and 4 months later	Change in gram/L	4 months
Secondary	Serum ferritin in children at the start of study and 4 months later	Change in microgram/L	4 months
Secondary	Consumption of sugar and processed foods	Number of types	1 month
Secondary	Food Aids received	Types of food groups	1 month