TY - JOUR
T1 - United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees feeding program performance in Kenya and Tanzania
T2 - A retrospective analysis of routine Health Information System data
AU - Tappis, Hannah
AU - Doocy, Shannon
AU - Haskew, Christopher
AU - Wilkinson, Caroline
AU - Oman, Allison
AU - Spiegel, Paul
PY - 2012/6
Y1 - 2012/6
N2 - Background: The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) Health Information System is a primary source of routine nutrition program data and provides a comprehensive assessment of UNHCR selective feeding programs in more than 90 refugee camps in 18 countries worldwide. Objective: To evaluate the coverage and effectiveness of UNHCR supplementary and therapeutic feeding programs for malnourished children under 5 years of age in Kenya and Tanzania refugee camps. Methods: Analysis of Kenya and Tanzania refugee camp population, growth monitoring, and nutrition program data from the UNHCR Health Information System. Results: UNHCR-supported implementing partners in Kenya and Tanzania admitted nearly 45,000 malnourished refugee children in selective feeding programs between January 2006 and May 2009. Average recovery rates of 77.1% and 84.6% in the therapeutic and supplementary programs, respectively, mortality rates of less than 1%, and average readmission below 5% suggest that feeding programs had a beneficial effect on enrolled children. Conclusions: Increasing admission and enrollment in supplementary feeding programs was successful in preventing cases of severe malnutrition in some camps. Further attention to these camps would be likely to yield sizeable benefits in terms of absolute reductions in malnutrition prevalence and mortality rates.
AB - Background: The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) Health Information System is a primary source of routine nutrition program data and provides a comprehensive assessment of UNHCR selective feeding programs in more than 90 refugee camps in 18 countries worldwide. Objective: To evaluate the coverage and effectiveness of UNHCR supplementary and therapeutic feeding programs for malnourished children under 5 years of age in Kenya and Tanzania refugee camps. Methods: Analysis of Kenya and Tanzania refugee camp population, growth monitoring, and nutrition program data from the UNHCR Health Information System. Results: UNHCR-supported implementing partners in Kenya and Tanzania admitted nearly 45,000 malnourished refugee children in selective feeding programs between January 2006 and May 2009. Average recovery rates of 77.1% and 84.6% in the therapeutic and supplementary programs, respectively, mortality rates of less than 1%, and average readmission below 5% suggest that feeding programs had a beneficial effect on enrolled children. Conclusions: Increasing admission and enrollment in supplementary feeding programs was successful in preventing cases of severe malnutrition in some camps. Further attention to these camps would be likely to yield sizeable benefits in terms of absolute reductions in malnutrition prevalence and mortality rates.
KW - Humanitarian intervention
KW - Malnutrition
KW - Refugee
KW - Supplementary feeding
KW - Therapeutic feeding
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=84863009464&partnerID=8YFLogxK
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U2 - 10.1177/156482651203300209
DO - 10.1177/156482651203300209
M3 - Article
C2 - 22908697
AN - SCOPUS:84863009464
SN - 0379-5721
VL - 33
SP - 150
EP - 160
JO - Food and nutrition bulletin
JF - Food and nutrition bulletin
IS - 2
ER -