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Background: Many organizations seek to alleviate poverty in the developing world, often focusing their interventions on women. The role, status, and education of women are fundamentally important facets of development. Thus, understanding the interaction of women's educational level and the response to interventions is important. Therefore, we examined the impact of educational level of household adults on responses to a livestock-based community intervention. Methods: Six pair-matched communities in 3 districts of Nepal (Chitwan/Nawalparasi/Nuwakot), were randomly assigned to receive community development activities via women's self-help groups at baseline or 1 year later. At 6 intervals over 48 months, a 125- item questionnaire addressing family demographics and child health/nutrition was completed in each household, plus child growth monitoring. Results were analyzed in relation to the highest education attained by any woman in the household, the child's mother, men, or any other adult in the household. Results: Outcomes (wealth, water/toilet availability, child diet diversity and growth) all significantly related to adult education. However, notable differences were found comparing the impact of men's and women's education. Percent change in wealth score was significant only in households where women had primary or secondary education (respectively, p = .0009 and p < .0001). Increased soap use related only to women's education (p < .0001). When adjusted for group assignment, baseline income, wealth, and animal scores, higher women's education was significantly associated with increased household wealth (p < .0001), better child height-for-age z scores (HAZ, p = .005), and improved child diet diversity (p = .01). Higher mother's education predicted better child HAZ (primary, p = .01, secondary, p = .03) and diet diversity (primary, p = .05, secondary, p < .0001). Higher men's education was significantly associated with household wealth (p = .02) and child diet diversity (p = .04), but not HAZ; higher education of any household member was associated only with household wealth (p < .0001). Moreover, households where the mother's education was better than the best-educated man also were significantly more likely to have children with better HAZ and dietary diversity (p = .03, p < .0001). Thus, the educational level of women and mothers had the broadest impact on child outcome variables. Conclusions: Household characteristics vary among participants in most community development projects. Of these, adult education likely mediates response to the inputs provided by the intervention. Particularly in interventions directed towards women, better education may enhance the ability of households to put interventions into practice, thus improving wealth, hygiene, and child diet and growth indices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: In 2014, an intervention aimed at increasing the oil in corn soy blend (CSB) porridge prepared by caregivers of children with moderate acute malnutrition was implemented in Southern Malawi. This analysis describes the flow of key messages delivered through the Care Group model during this intervention.Methods: The intervention provided a supplementary food ration of CSB and oil and used a Care Group model in which healthcare workers were trained to deliver social and behavior change communication (SBCC) to care group volunteers who then delivered messages to caregivers of beneficiary children. Healthcare workers also delivered messages to caregivers directly. Interviews and focus groups were conducted with all three groups in order to determine the exchange of key messages about ingredient use, storage, and purpose, which were analyzed descriptively.Results: Analysis of SBCC flow and information exchange showed that 100% of caregivers reported learning about the amounts of oil and CSB to use while preparing porridge and over 90% of caregivers, healthcare workers, and care group volunteers reported talking about it. Focus groups confirmed an effective flow of communication among these three groups.Conclusion: This analysis evaluated the flow of key SBCC messages through multiple, overlapping lines of communication among healthcare workers, care group volunteers, and caregivers; the effective transmission of these SBCC messages through this model may contribute to the success of a supplementary feeding intervention program.Trial Registration: The study was registered at ClinicalTrials.gov ( NCT01873196 ). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]