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Rural Malawi (rural + malawi)

Distribution by Scientific Domains

Medical Sciences	50%

Selected Abstracts

Participation and Impact of Poverty-oriented Public Works Projects in Rural Malawi

DEVELOPMENT POLICY REVIEW, Issue 2 2002
Ephraim W. Chirwa
This article reports on factors influencing participation in the poverty-oriented public works programme in rural Malawi and analyses the determinants of the revealed positive socio-economic impact among the participants. The programme targets poor households through self-selection by offering a wage below the official minimum for rural areas. The empirical results show that most participants are poor and with little education. Probability of particpation is higher for members of female-headed households and households with longer periods of food insecurity, excess supply of labour, few assets and reservation wages below the wage offered in the programme. Taking account of selectivity bias, the impact of the programme increases with the gender (female) of participants and the numbers per household participating. [source]

Childhood malnutrition and its predictors in rural Malawi

PAEDIATRIC & PERINATAL EPIDEMIOLOGY, Issue 4 2003
Kenneth Maleta
Summary We prospectively followed up a population-based cohort of 767 rural Malawian children from birth to 36 months to characterise the timing and predictors of malnutrition. Underweight and wasting incidence peaked between 6 and 18 months of age, whereas stunting incidence was highest during the first 6 months of age. After infancy about 40% of the children were underweight, 70% stunted, and about 4% wasted. Small size during the first 3 months of life predicted the incidence of severe underweight (relative risk [95% confidence interval], 1.8 [0.9, 3.4]), severe stunting ( 2.1 [1.3, 3.4]), and moderate wasting (2.0 [1.1, 3.5]). Children with many illness episodes in infancy had a twofold risk for the development of severe underweight and moderate wasting. Severe underweight was further predicted by residence far away from a health facility and moderate wasting by maternal HIV infection. Our conclusion is that the intrauterine period and first 6 months of life are critical for the development of stunting whereas the subsequent year is more critical for the development of underweight and wasting. Strategies combating intrauterine growth retardation, maternal HIV and infant morbidity are likely to reduce the burden of malnutrition in this population. [source]

Maternal medicine: Randomised trial of vitamin A supplementation in pregnant women in rural Malawi found to be anaemic on screening by HemoCue

BJOG : AN INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF OBSTETRICS & GYNAECOLOGY, Issue 5 2006
NR Van Den Broek
Objective, To assess the effects of vitamin A supplementation in women with anaemia during pregnancy. Design, Single-centre randomised controlled trial. Setting, Rural community in southern Malawi, central Africa. Population, Seven hundred women with singleton pregnancies at 12,24 weeks measured by ultrasound scan and with haemoglobin <11.0 g/dl by HemoCue screening method. Analysis was by intention to treat. All received iron and folate, and sulphadoxine/pyrimethamine for antimalarial prophylaxis. Methods, Women were randomised to receive oral supplementation with daily 5000 or 10 000 iu vitamin A, or placebo. Main outcome measures, Anaemia, as assessed by Coulter counter, severe anaemia, iron status and indices of infection. Results, Vitamin A deficiency was, in this rural population, less common than predicted. Vitamin A supplementation had no significant impact on anaemia, severe anaemia, iron status and indices of infection. Vitamin A stores were less likely to be depleted at the end of pregnancy in supplemented groups. Conclusions, Vitamin A supplementation programmes to reduce anaemia should not be implemented in similar antenatal populations in rural sub-Saharan Africa unless evidence emerges of positive benefit on substantive clinical outcomes. Introducing public health interventions of unknown benefit and with unclear biological mechanisms can divert scarce resources from clinical and social interventions more likely to impact maternal mortality. [source]