Ignite Creation Date:
2024-07-17 @ 11:48 AM
Last Modification Date:
2024-10-26 @ 3:33 PM
Study NCT ID:
NCT06473025
Status:
ACTIVE_NOT_RECRUITING
Last Update Posted:
2024-06-25
First Post:
2024-06-13
Brief Title:
Parental Misperceptions on Child Nutrition in India Implications for Child Feeding Practices and Growth
Sponsor:
University of Southern California
Organization:
University of Southern California
Study Overview
Official Title:
Parental Misperceptions on Child Nutrition in India Implications for Child Feeding Practices and Growth
Status:
ACTIVE_NOT_RECRUITING
Status Verified Date:
2024-10
Last Known Status:
None
Delayed Posting:
No
If Stopped, Why?:
Not Stopped
Has Expanded Access:
False
If Expanded Access, NCT#:
N/A
Has Expanded Access, NCT# Status:
N/A
Acronym:
None
Brief Summary:
The goal of this randomized controlled trial is to examine the role of parental misperceptions and information gaps in contributing to poor child dietary practices and high child undernutrition rates in India The main research questions it seeks to answer are
1 Do mothers systematically overestimate the nutritional status height- and weight-for-age percentiles of their children relative to global World Health Organization WHO standards and other children in their region
2 Do mothers underestimate the returns to child nutrition on long-term health education and labor market outcomes
3 What mechanisms could explain the formation of such misperceptions Are mothers with higher exposure to undernourished children more likely to overestimate their childrens nutritional status and
4 Would updating mothers beliefs about a their childrens true height-for-age and weight-for-age percentiles andor b the returns to child nutrition improve child feeding practices utilization of government nutrition services and child growth outcomes
The study involves an individual-level randomized controlled trial with 1500 mothers of children aged 7-24 months in Telangana India with two information treatment arms and one control arm The first treatment will update mothers beliefs on the relative height- and weight-for-age percentiles of their children and the second will provide information on the impacts of child undernutrition on long-term health risk of chronic and infectious diseases mortality education high school test scores years of education and labor market earnings outcomes
The treatment and control groups will be compared to assess if the information treatments improve outcomes related to child feeding practices consumption of government-supplied therapeutic food cognition measures and child growth
1 Do mothers systematically overestimate the nutritional status height- and weight-for-age percentiles of their children relative to global World Health Organization WHO standards and other children in their region
2 Do mothers underestimate the returns to child nutrition on long-term health education and labor market outcomes
3 What mechanisms could explain the formation of such misperceptions Are mothers with higher exposure to undernourished children more likely to overestimate their childrens nutritional status and
4 Would updating mothers beliefs about a their childrens true height-for-age and weight-for-age percentiles andor b the returns to child nutrition improve child feeding practices utilization of government nutrition services and child growth outcomes
The study involves an individual-level randomized controlled trial with 1500 mothers of children aged 7-24 months in Telangana India with two information treatment arms and one control arm The first treatment will update mothers beliefs on the relative height- and weight-for-age percentiles of their children and the second will provide information on the impacts of child undernutrition on long-term health risk of chronic and infectious diseases mortality education high school test scores years of education and labor market earnings outcomes
The treatment and control groups will be compared to assess if the information treatments improve outcomes related to child feeding practices consumption of government-supplied therapeutic food cognition measures and child growth
Detailed Description:
The goal of this randomized controlled trial is to examine the role of parental misperceptions and information gaps in contributing to poor child dietary practices and high rates of child undernutrition in India This study is guided by two core hypotheses
1 Parents systematically overestimate the nutritional status of their children If parents form expectations about how healthy their child is by observing other children around them then parents in areas with high levels of stunting and wasting may be more likely to believe that their own child is relatively healthy and have a skewed perception of ideal height and weight levels
2 Parents systematically underestimate the returns to child nutrition on long-term health education and labor market outcomes While there is a large literature documenting the effects of child nutrition on the incidence of infectious and chronic diseases years of education test scores and earnings in adulthood this information is most likely not common knowledge among parents in India particularly in rural areas
These misperceptions if proven true may create a suboptimal equilibrium for child nutrition outcomes trapping families in a cycle of inadequate nutrition
The main research questions are
1 Do mothers systematically overestimate the nutritional status height- and weight-for-age percentiles of their children relative to global WHO standards and other children in their region
2 Do mothers underestimate the returns to child nutrition on long-term health education and labor market outcomes
3 What mechanisms could explain the formation of such misperceptions Are mothers with higher exposure to undernourished children more likely to overestimate their childrens nutritional status and
4 Would updating mothers beliefs about a their childrens true height-for-age and weight-for-age percentiles andor b the returns to child nutrition improve child feeding practices utilization of government nutrition services and child growth outcomes
The research design involves an individual-level field experiment with 1500 mothers of children aged 7 to 24 months with two treatment arms and a control arm
Treatment arm 1 Update mothers beliefs on the height-for-age and weight-for-age percentiles of their child relative to a reference group of healthy children based on WHO standards
Treatment arm 2 Treatment 1 information on the impacts of child undernutrition on long-term health risk of chronic and infectious diseases mortality education high school test scores years of education and labor market earnings outcomes synthesized from existing literature
Control arm Status-quo no intervention
The main outcomes of interest are - a willingness-to-pay WTP for a protein supplementfood bundle for the child measured at the end of the baseline survey and b beliefs on child nutrition c child feeding practices frequency of meals diet diversity diet adequacy protein consumption measured through a 24-hour diet recall module d consumption of government-supplied therapeutic food e child height weight and anthropometric z-scores f child health outcomes episodes of illness g household food expenditures and h child cognition measures measured during the endline survey
1 Parents systematically overestimate the nutritional status of their children If parents form expectations about how healthy their child is by observing other children around them then parents in areas with high levels of stunting and wasting may be more likely to believe that their own child is relatively healthy and have a skewed perception of ideal height and weight levels
2 Parents systematically underestimate the returns to child nutrition on long-term health education and labor market outcomes While there is a large literature documenting the effects of child nutrition on the incidence of infectious and chronic diseases years of education test scores and earnings in adulthood this information is most likely not common knowledge among parents in India particularly in rural areas
These misperceptions if proven true may create a suboptimal equilibrium for child nutrition outcomes trapping families in a cycle of inadequate nutrition
The main research questions are
1 Do mothers systematically overestimate the nutritional status height- and weight-for-age percentiles of their children relative to global WHO standards and other children in their region
2 Do mothers underestimate the returns to child nutrition on long-term health education and labor market outcomes
3 What mechanisms could explain the formation of such misperceptions Are mothers with higher exposure to undernourished children more likely to overestimate their childrens nutritional status and
4 Would updating mothers beliefs about a their childrens true height-for-age and weight-for-age percentiles andor b the returns to child nutrition improve child feeding practices utilization of government nutrition services and child growth outcomes
The research design involves an individual-level field experiment with 1500 mothers of children aged 7 to 24 months with two treatment arms and a control arm
Treatment arm 1 Update mothers beliefs on the height-for-age and weight-for-age percentiles of their child relative to a reference group of healthy children based on WHO standards
Treatment arm 2 Treatment 1 information on the impacts of child undernutrition on long-term health risk of chronic and infectious diseases mortality education high school test scores years of education and labor market earnings outcomes synthesized from existing literature
Control arm Status-quo no intervention
The main outcomes of interest are - a willingness-to-pay WTP for a protein supplementfood bundle for the child measured at the end of the baseline survey and b beliefs on child nutrition c child feeding practices frequency of meals diet diversity diet adequacy protein consumption measured through a 24-hour diet recall module d consumption of government-supplied therapeutic food e child height weight and anthropometric z-scores f child health outcomes episodes of illness g household food expenditures and h child cognition measures measured during the endline survey
Study Oversight
Has Oversight DMC:
None
Is a FDA Regulated Drug?:
False
Is a FDA Regulated Device?:
False
Is an Unapproved Device?:
None
Is a PPSD?:
None
Is a US Export?:
None
Is an FDA AA801 Violation?:
None