Effectiveness of teacher-based nutrition interventions in addressing malnutrition among sub-Saharan children

Jonathan Nsamba

doi:10.14419/ijh.v8i1.31804

Abstract

Introduction: To address the high malnutrition rates in Sub Saharan Africa, most programs addressing malnutrition have continuously been streamlined through the health system, yet this has not yielded results as expected. On the other hand, the education sector has shown an immense capacity to address some challenges, such as eliminating short-term hunger through School feeding programs. Yet, little attention has been given to teachers as far as implementing health and nutrition interventions. With an increased school enrolment rate in Sub Saharan Africa, teachers present huge potential as change agents.Objectives: To consolidate evidence about the effectiveness of teacher-based interventions in addressing malnutrition in Sub- Saharan Africa.Methods: A search strategy through online databases including EBSCO, PubMed, BASE, Cochrane, Google Scholar, LILACS, Project MUSE, TRIP Database, and Emerald Insight gave rise to 95,734 studies. These were identified and taken through a series of screening stages such that the most eligible were included to answer the review question.Results: Three studies fulfilled the inclusion criteria. Results showed that teacher-based interventions such as school lunch, deworming, vitamin A supplementation, and nutrition education positively affect the nutrition status of primary school children, school attendances, are sustainable and reach many children.Conclusion: There is a need to actively involve teachers in the primordial and primary prevention stages of malnutrition through strengthening nutrition education, supplementary programs and school gardening. Teachers have an essential role to play in the fight against Malnutrition in Sub Saharan Africa.Â Â

Highlights

To address the high malnutrition rates in Sub Saharan Africa, most programs addressing malnutrition have continuously been streamlined through the health system, yet this has not yielded results as expected
A growing body of evidence suggests an existence of a double burden of malnutrition characterised by under and over nutrition existing concurrently among Sub- Saharan primary school children [1]
Many nutrition-specific and sensitive interventions [2] continue to be implemented in the region to address this double burden. These are mainly streamlined through the health sector, albeit yielding minimal short-term successes as far as improving nutrition indicators is concerned despite the enormous financial inputs. Does this call for a permutation of approach to involve school teachers? The African region has remained the global hotspot for hunger and malnutrition

Summary

Introduction

To address the high malnutrition rates in Sub Saharan Africa, most programs addressing malnutrition have continuously been streamlined through the health system, yet this has not yielded results as expected. Objectives: To consolidate evidence about the effectiveness of teacher-based interventions in addressing malnutrition in Sub- Saharan Africa. Many nutrition-specific and sensitive interventions [2] continue to be implemented in the region to address this double burden These are mainly streamlined through the health sector, albeit yielding minimal short-term successes as far as improving nutrition indicators is concerned despite the enormous financial inputs. Does this call for a permutation of approach to involve school teachers? There is a need to explore teachers' feasibility as alternative channels for addressing the persistent determinants of malnutrition in Sub- Saharan Africa

Objectives

Methods

Results

Discussion

Conclusion