PoSHAN Community Studies

Abstract

The PoSHAN Community Studies is a public health research project of the Feed the Future Innovation Lab for Collaborative Research on Nutrition (Nutrition Innovation Lab), funded by the US Agency for International Development (USAID). The goal of the PoSHAN Community Studies is to present timely, nationally representative data and interpretive guidance on food security, diet and nutritional well-being of rural families with young children as may be influenced by agriculture, markets and programs. Methods: PoSHAN has two key field components: The first is a series of three national, annual panel surveys being carried out from May to July 2013, 2014 and 2015. The second field activity is a multi-season surveillance, being conducted throughout the year in a subset of one “sentinel” VDC (each with three wards) in each of the sampled mountain, hill and terai zone VDCs. The sampling frame for the PoSHAN Community Studies comprised all districts and VDCs in Nepal. Utilizing systematic random sampling, 7 VDCs from each zone were selected. Ward selection comprised the 2nd stage of sampling. Three of nine wards were selected using probability proportional to size (PPS) for the annual assessment, providing a total of 63 wards in the annual survey (21 per zone). The actual sample size was 4287 households, 4509 women and 5401 children under the age of five years at the baseline survey. Data collection was carried out by New ERA. All questionnaires were pre-tested prior to finalization. Completed and checked data forms were transferred to the field team supervisor, who after checking and collating and securely maintaining the forms, submitted them periodically to the data management center at New ERA where all data was double- entered on a real-time basis using Fox Pro (Version 2.6). Data underwent initial exploratory and descriptive analyses to quantify distributions of discreet and continuous variables. Results: The data reveal a country that varies by ecological zone in its agricultural resources, practices and productivity, diversity in marketed foods and their prices, food security, dietary patterns and nutritional status of children and mothers, and their participation in development programs. Conclusions: The zones are sufficiently distinct that “national” patterns must be disaggregated and understood for each zone to improve future nutrition-sensitive agriculture programs. Keywords: development programs; dietary pattern; food security; nutritional status; participation; PoSHAN community studies.