Jacob Gustavus

Evelyn Galvez
Bio 1615 Lab
Nutritional Status of Children after a Food-Supplemental Program Integrated with
Routine Health Care through Mobile Clinics in migrant communities in the
Dominican Republic
Introduction
Scientist observed that millions of children die each year due to diseases caused
by a lack of proper nutrients in their body systems. The diseases these children contract
affect their young immune and cellular systems by overloading them until they eventually
fail. The scientist hypothesized that the reason behind the deaths of these children is that
these children do not have the fortune of living in a place where the proper types and/or
amounts of food are available to support a healthy diet and with the lack of a proper diet
these children are susceptible to foreign bacterias that their bodies cannot defend against.
The scientists began an experiment to see if incorporating a program where they
could distribute certain food packages to children in the Dominican Republic by using the
countries mobile medical clinics. The experiment was: each time a child would attend
one of these clinics for a routine check up, they were diagnosed into two major
categories: healthy and malnourished. Each child that fell under the malnourished
category would be given a tailored food-supplemental package to determine if they could
increase the number of healthy children in the community and reduce the number of
chronic and acute health factors related to being malnourished.
Materials and Methods
The scientist tested 5 different communities in the Dominican Republic referred to
as the Bateyes The Bateyes are a very poor and perverse area of the Dominican
Republic and are often very rural and not easily accessible.

The researchers used an experiment called a quasi-experiment which is a nonprejudice experiment that is specified to the needs of these children depending on the
severity of their condition. The researchers used multiple methods to classify the
conditions of the children: the first method was designed specifically to measure kids
under 5 years of age. This was done by using the Child Growth Standards formula
developed by the World Health Organization, the researchers were able to obtain each
childs age, weight and height through their routine check up and plug it into this
organizations formula: weight to length/height 120 cm.
With the statistics researchers were able to put together tables that were used to
calculate the ratio of a childs height to weight and then compare those results with the
US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) to determine the severity of the
childs condition. The children were then categorized into groups: normal, mild,
moderate, and severe. To obtain more accuracy in this experiment, after the kids were
diagnosed as severe, mild, moderate, normal, chronic or acute, the researchers then used
grouping techniques to categorize these kids by age and severity.
Results
With the tables and the charts set up and the clinics continuing to implement this
program, one year later the researchers went back and discovered that those who were
diagnosed with acute under nutrition had improved after the food-supplemental program
was initiated. Those in the mild category improved from 33% to only 20%. Those in the
moderate category improved from 7% to only 3%. And those in the normal category
improved by 17% in going from 60% to 77%. For those diagnosed with chronic issues:
the mild category improved from 21% to only 15%, moderate went from 9% to only 2%,

severe went from 3% to only 1% and those diagnosed as normal improved by 15% to go
from 67% to 82%. According to the results Author Kavita Parikh said. There was an
overall reduction in under nutrition among all the bateyes but the reduction was
statistically significant in only two of the five individual bateyes (Parikh, 2010).
Discussion
Integrating food-assistance programs with routine health care in rural communities in
the Dominican Republic can significantly improve the nutritional status of
children(Parikh, 2010). Although this is true nothing can substitute for interventions like
teaching communities different ways to improve their overall health and how
breastfeeding and complementary-feeding can improve a childs health regardless of the
food program.
Although the results were quite favorable, they could have differed in many ways.
With the limited number of children testedonly 175and the open ended use of what
these kids could have done with the food after they had received it and the fact that it
would be unethical/immoral to lock these kids in a controlled environment to regulate the
experiment, the results can vary greatly.

Works Cited
Parikh, K. Marein-Efron, G. Huang, S. OHare, G. Finalle, R. and Shah, S. Nutritional Status of
Children after a Food-Supplemental program...(n.d.). Retrieved April 4, 2016, from
http://www.biology1615.weebly.com/uploads/5/5/4/8/5548644/food_supplementation_programs.
pdf