Assessing the Impact, Implementation and Cost of Empowering Community Health Promoters to Improve Wasting Treatment Coverage in Turkana County Through Family-led MUAC Scale-up, Weight-for-age Screening, and Defaulters' Follow-up

What this Trial Is About

Child wasting is a form of severe malnutrition where a child becomes too thin, increasing the risk of illness and death. This condition requires medical consultation for treatment using medicine and nutritional supplements. However, only a small number of severely wasted children currently receive appropriate care. In Kenya, researchers are evaluating a community-based approach called SWITCH to improve detection and treatment of wasting by empowering community health promoters (CHPs) with digital tools and training. The SWITCH intervention equips CHPs with smartphones and an app to guide household visits, distribute color-coded mid-upper arm circumference (MUAC) tapes, and train caregivers to use them. CHPs send regular SMS reminders to caregivers for monitoring, measure children's weight monthly, and follow up on children who miss treatment visits through home visits. The study randomly assigns 20 of 40 community units to receive this intervention, with the other 20 continuing standard care. Participants are children aged 6 to 59 months living in the study area. Researchers will conduct baseline and follow-up surveys to measure the proportion of children receiving treatment after 24 months. They will also assess the intervention's reach, challenges, community perceptions, and costs through interviews and data collection from caregivers, CHPs, and program staff. Outcomes include treatment coverage, nutritional status measures, caregiver knowledge, and immunization rates.

Expanding Coverage of Severe Acute Malnutrition (SAM) Treatment in Kenya