Trial reportBMC public health2019
Effects of participatory learning and action with women's groups, counselling through home visits and crèches on undernutrition among children under three years in eastern India: a quasi-experimental study.
Trial report in BMC public health, 2019. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 24 papers, 2 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
24 citing papers in PubMed, 2 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 49 citations in OpenAlex.
- Community health workers and health equity in low- and middle-income countries: systematic review and recommendations for policy and practice.International journal for equity in health · 2022Pooled it
- Community interventions with women's groups to improve women's and children's health in India: a mixed-methods systematic review of effects, enablers and barriers.BMJ global health · 2020Pooled it
- Effect of nutrition-sensitive agriculture interventions with participatory videos and women's group meetings on maternal and child nutritional outcomes in rural Odisha, India (UPAVAN trial): a four-arm, observer-blind, cluster-randomised controlled trial.The Lancet. Planetary health · 2021Trial
- Intervening infant and young child feeding among Indian tribes - a scoping review.BMC public health · 2026Article
- Feasibility and acceptability of a life skills and reproductive health empowerment intervention for young newly married women in Rajasthan, India: a pre-post convergent mixed methods pilot study.Pilot and feasibility studies · 2025Article
- Can nutrition-sensitive agriculture interventions address intersectional inequalities in women's diets? A mediation analysis using cross-sectional trial data from Odisha, India.The American journal of clinical nutrition · 2025Article
- Addressing nutritional inequities in vulnerable Colombian communities: an analysis from socioeconomic, cultural, and healthcare challenges.BMC public health · 2025Article
- Article
- Building a rights-based approach to nutrition for women and children: harnessing the potential of women's groups and rights-based organizations in South Asia.Frontiers in public health · 2025Article
- Women improving nutrition through self-help groups in India: Does nutrition information help?Food policy · 2024Article
- Individual interventions, collective lessons: Developing mid-range theory on women's groups to improve health.Journal of global health · 2024Article
- Feasibility, acceptability and equity of a mobile intervention for Upscaling Participatory Action and Videos for Agriculture and Nutrition (m-UPAVAN) in rural Odisha, India.PLOS global public health · 2024Article
- Effectiveness of a technical support program with women's self-help groups in catalyzing health and nutrition behaviors in Bihar-a multicomponent analysis.Frontiers in public health · 2024Article
- Article
- A Quasi-Experimental Evaluation of a Nutrition Behavior Change Intervention Delivered Through Women's Self-Help Groups in Rural India: Impacts on Maternal and Young Child Diets, Anthropometry, and Intermediate Outcomes.Current developments in nutrition · 2022Article
- Matching Intent With Intensity: Implementation Research on the Intensity of Health and Nutrition Programs With Women's Self-Help Groups in India.Global health, science and practice · 2022Article
- Design Factors for Food Supplementation and Nutrition Education Interventions That Limit Conclusions about Effectiveness for Wasting Prevention: A Scoping Review of Peer-Reviewed Literature.Advances in nutrition (Bethesda, Md.) · 2022Article
- Understanding Community Participation in Rural Health Care: A Participatory Learning and Action Approach.Frontiers in public health · 2022Article
- Scoping Review of Intervention Strategies for Improving Coverage and Uptake of Maternal Nutrition Services in Southeast Asia.International journal of environmental research and public health · 2021Article
- Spaces for women: Rethinking behavior change communication in the context of women's groups and nutrition-sensitive agriculture.Social science & medicine (1982) · 2021Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
13 authors at 5 institutions in 2 countries.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundIndia faces a high burden of child undernutrition. We evaluated the effects of two community strategies to reduce undernutrition among children under 3 years in rural Jharkhand and Odisha, eastern India: (1) monthly Participatory Learning and Action (PLA) meetings with women's groups followed by home visits; (2) crèches for children aged 6 months to 3 years combined with monthly PLA meetings and home visits.
methodsWe tested these strategies in a non-randomised, controlled study with baseline and endline cross-sectional surveys. We purposively selected five blocks of Jharkhand and Odisha, and divided each block into three areas. Area 1 served as control. In Area 2, trained local female workers facilitated PLA meetings and offered counselling to mothers of children under three at home. In Area 3, workers facilitated PLA meetings, did home visits, and crèches with food and growth monitoring were opened for children aged 6 months to 3 years. We did a census across all study areas and randomly sampled 4668 children under three and their mothers for interview and anthropometry at baseline and endline. The evaluation's primary outcome was wasting among children under three in areas 2 and 3 compared with area 1, adjusted for baseline differences between areas. Other outcomes included underweight, stunting, preventive and care-seeking practices for children.
resultsWe interviewed 83% (3868/4668) of mothers of children under three sampled at baseline, and 76% (3563/4668) at endline. In area 2 (PLA and home visits), wasting among children under three was reduced by 34% (adjusted Odds Ratio [aOR]: 0.66, 95%: 0.51-0.88) and underweight by 25% (aOR: 0.75, 95% CI: 0.59-0.95), with no change in stunting (aOR: 1.23, 95% CI: 0.96-1.57). In area 3, (PLA, home visits, crèches), wasting was reduced by 27% (aOR: 0.73, 95% CI: 0.55-0.97), underweight by 40% (aOR: 0.60, 95% CI: 0.47-0.75), and stunting by 27% (aOR: 0.73, 95% CI: 0.57-0.93).
conclusionsCrèches, PLA meetings and home visits reduced undernutrition among children under three in rural eastern India. These interventions could be scaled up through government plans to strengthen home visits and community mobilisation with Accredited Social Health Activists, and through efforts to promote crèches.
trial registrationThe evaluation was registered retrospectively with Current Controlled Trials as ISCRTN89911047 on 30/01/2019.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.