Skip to main content
NUTRITION 2024 Main banner
Icon Legend
This session is not in your schedule.
This session is in your schedule. Click again to remove it.
Back

Session: Nutritional Disparity and Efficacy/Effectiveness of Interventions/Programs in Children in Low-Income Countries (Oral 25)

(OR25-06-24) Effect of a Liquefied Petroleum Gas Cookstove and Fuel Intervention on Food Insecurity and Maternal and Infant Dietary Diversity: A Multi-center Randomized Control Trial

Monday, July 1, 2024
3:00 PM – 3:12 PM CT
Location:  W184
Objectives: Food insecurity, poor dietary diversity, and sub-optimal infant and young child feeding (IYCF) practices remain serious problems, particularly in low-resource settings where 2.3 billion people cook using fuels such as kerosene or biomass (wood, charcoal, dung, and crop residue). These cooking practices may indirectly affect nutrition outcomes, as households allocate income and time away from food and optimal IYCF practices. We examined the effect of a cleaner cooking intervention on food insecurity and maternal and infant dietary diversity.

Methods: Data were from a multi-center randomized control trial that enrolled 3195 pregnant women from rural regions of Guatemala, Peru, India, and Rwanda. Women assigned to the intervention group received a free liquefied petroleum gas cookstove and free fuel for 18 months; those in the control group continued to use primarily biomass fuels. We measured food insecurity and dietary diversity using standard survey modules for the Food Insecurity Experience Scale, the Minimum Dietary Diversity – Women indicator, and WHO/UNICEF indicators for IYCF practices. We created binary variables for food security and minimum dietary diversity for women and infants. We conducted an intention-to-treat analysis of the effect of the intervention on each outcome at endline, using Poisson regression adjusted for study site and, for food security, adjusted for baseline values due to imbalance between arms.

Results: At baseline, 57% of respondents were food secure (59% intervention, 55% control) and 27% of women achieved minimum dietary diversity (27% intervention, 27% control). At endline, 1901 (68%) of 2797 respondents were food secure (70% intervention, 65% control) and 627 (22%) of 2868 women (23% intervention, 20% control) and 1552 (54%) of 2882 infants (56% intervention, 52% control) achieved minimum dietary diversity. The intervention had no effect on food security (adjusted relative risk [aRR]: 0.91; 95% CI: 0.80, 1.03) and a protective effect on dietary diversity among women (aRR: 1.16; 95% CI: 1.01, 1.32) and infants (aRR: 1.07; 95% CI: 1.01, 1.15).

Conclusions: A free cleaner cookstove and fuel intervention during pregnancy and infancy had no effect on food security but had a protective effect on dietary diversity for women or infants.

Funding Sources: U.S. National Institutes of Health; Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation