This study evaluated the impact of a nutrition education intervention on child feeding practices and children's nutritional status. Using a randomized controlled trial, we conducted an intervention for 6 months among caregivers with children aged 6-17 months in two subdistricts of Kendari, SE Sulawesi Province, Indonesia. In all, 22 integrated health posts were randomly assigned to an educational intervention or control group with 266 participants in both groups. Participants in the intervention group attended four nutrition classes and received a monthly home visit by cadres (community volunteers), whereas participants in the control group only received standard monthly health care at the health post. The primary study outcome was children's dietary diversity scores (DDSs). Mixed model analysis was conducted to examine the intervention effects on DDS and children's growth adjusting for clustering within subvillages. The study showed the educational intervention had a significant effect on children's DDS. Children in the intervention group had a larger DDS compared with children in the control group (Beta [mean difference] = 0.34, 95% CI: 0.02 to 0.66, P = 0.038). The intervention effect on height-for-age z-score (HAZ) could not be shown (Beta = 0.24, 95% CI: -0.06 to 0.56, P = 0.112). However, stunting prevalence remained stable in the intervention group but increased in the control group. These results indicated nutrition education delivered through nutrition classes combined with regular home visits by cadres as influencers provided a great potential to be adopted to complement other nutrition programmes in community health centres.

中文翻译：

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印度尼西亚东南苏拉威西省的营养教育：一项整群随机对照研究。

本研究评估了营养教育干预对儿童喂养方法和儿童营养状况的影响。使用随机对照试验，我们在印度尼西亚东南苏拉威西省肯达里的两个分区对照顾 6-17 个月大儿童的看护人进行了为期 6 个月的干预。总共有 22 个综合卫生站被随机分配到教育干预组或对照组，两组都有 266 名参与者。干预组参加了四次营养课，每月接受干部（社区志愿者）的家访，而对照组参加者仅在卫生站接受标准的每月保健。主要研究结果是儿童的饮食多样性评分 (DDS)。进行了混合模型分析，以检查对 DDS 的干预效果和调整子村内聚类的儿童生长。研究表明，教育干预对儿童的DDS有显着影响。与对照组儿童相比，干预组儿童的 DDS 更大（Beta [均值差] = 0.34，95% CI：0.02 至 0.66，P = 0.038）。无法显示干预对年龄别身高 z 分数 (HAZ) 的影响（Beta = 0.24，95% CI：-0.06 至 0.56，P = 0.112）。然而，干预组的发育迟缓患病率保持稳定，但对照组的发育迟缓患病率有所增加。