Benefits of a Household WASH Package to Community-based Management of Acute Malnutrition (CMAM) Program, Chad

Summary

The objective of the research is to assess the effectiveness of adding a Household WASH component to the standard outpatient treatment of severe acute malnutrition.

Study design: cluster-randomized controlled trial comparing two interventions:

1. Control group: outpatient management of children diagnosed for severe acute malnutrition only
2. Intervention group: outpatient management of children diagnosed for severe acute malnutrition + "household WASH package"

2000 children, aged between 6 and 59 months, admitted to 20 OTP (Outpatient Therapeutic Program) centers for SAM will be included into the study and followed for 8 months (2 months of treatment, and 6 months after successful discharge).

Conditions

• Severe Malnutrition

Interventions

BEHAVIORAL

Hygiene promotion sessions

Hygiene promotion sessions are provided weekly to the caretakers at the health center level. They contain 7 main messages this study is trying to get across: Allocate a protected space for children to play, limiting the likelihood of them ingesting soil or animal feces; Wash the child with soap (hand, face) when outside the protected area; Cleaning and rapid burial of children's stools; Key times for hand washing with soap for the child caretaker; Store drinking water in a closed container located in an elevated place out of reach of animals; Drinking water provided to the child should be treated with chlorine or boiled; Once weaned, avoid giving to the child leftover food, or only after warming it again.

DEVICE

Household WASH package

The content of the kit: 200 g soap, aquatab 67 g, 20 liters Jerry can, a cup, a plastic kettle for hand washing and the instructions leaflet.

BEHAVIORAL

Household visit

A household visit conducted by village's community health volunteers and ACF intervention staff during and after the treatment, to provide refresh training on the messages and the use of the kit.

BEHAVIORAL

Group discussions after successful discharge

Group discussions on hygiene and care practices with mothers at the community level after successful discharge.

PROCEDURE

Outpatient Therapeutic Programme

Home-based treatment and rehabilitation using Ready-to-use Therapeutic Food (RUTF) for children with severe acute malnutrition

Sponsors & Collaborators

• Institute of Tropical Medicine, Belgium

  collaborator OTHER

• Association Sahélienne de Recherches Appliquées pour le Développement Durable

  collaborator OTHER

• Action Contre la Faim

  lead OTHER

Principal Investigators

• Mathias Altmann, Dr · ACTION CONTRE LA FAIM | ACF-France

Study Design

Allocation

RANDOMIZED

Purpose

TREATMENT

Masking

NONE

Model

PARALLEL

Eligibility

Min Age

6 Months

Max Age

59 Months

Sex

ALL

Healthy Volunteers

No

Timeline & Regulatory

Start

2015-04-30

Primary Completion

2016-05-31

Completion

2016-05-31

Countries

• Chad

Study Locations