This article published last week in the Lancet, discusses child development, growth and health outcomes achieved by adding an integrated cognitive stimulation/nutrition intervention for 0-2s on to a lay community health worker programme in rural Pakistan, as part of a large RCT funded by UNICEF.
The results show that children who received responsive stimulation had significantly higher development scores on the cognitive, language, and motor scales at 12 and 24 months of age, and on the social-emotional scale at 12 months of age, than did those who did not receive the intervention. Children who received enhanced nutrition had significantly higher development scores on the cognitive, language, and social-emotional scales at 12 months of age than those who did not receive this intervention, but at 24 months of age only the language scores remained significantly higher. No additive benefits were recorded when responsive stimulation was combined with nutrition interventions.
The study also demonstrates that a responsive stimulation intervention can be delivered effectively by CHWs and positively affects development outcomes.
Read the full report here
