KIU Publications

Introduction: Childhood undernutrition remains a critical public healthproblem globally, with the highest prevalence concentrated in rural, resourceconstrained settings across sub-Saharan Africa. Gendered asymmetries infood access, resource control, and household decision-making substantiallyexacerbate nutritional disparities. This study assessed the effectiveness of atargeted gender equality intervention, delivered over a 16-week (approximately4-month) period, on dietary diversity and nutritional outcomes in children under5 years in Cross River State, Nigeria.Methods: A community-based quasi-experimental study with a pre-test/posttest control group design was conducted, enrolling 200 child-caregiver pairsallocated equally to intervention and control groups drawn from two purposivelyselected, socio-demographically comparable Local Government Areas (LGAs).The intervention comprised nutrition education, women’s empowermentsessions, and structured male partner engagement. Baseline and end-line (16week) data on child anthropometry and minimum dietary diversity (MDD) wereanalyzed using independent t-tests, Chi-square tests, and analysis of covariance(ANCOVA) adjusting for baseline scores, child age, and household size.Results: Stunting prevalence was approximately 36% in both groups at baseline.Over the 16-week study period, ANCOVA-adjusted marginal means at end-linerevealed significantly greater improvements in the intervention group forheight-for-age z-scores (HAZ: −0.89 vs. −1.51; F = 10.05, p = 0.002), weightfor-age z-scores (WAZ: 0.53 vs. 0.21; F = 12.6, p = 0.001), and MDD (4.19 vs.3.06; F = 79.6, p < 0.001). Stunting prevalence fell from 36.5% to 23.5% in theintervention group over the study period, whilst rising from 34.2% to 50.6%in the control group. The proportion of children achieving adequate MDDincreased from 41.2% to 78.8% in the intervention group across the 16 weeks,compared with 45.6% to 49.4% in the control group.