CompletedPregnancy, Children & Inherited ConditionsPublic Health & Healthcare
The NIHR Global Health Research Group on leveraging improved nutrition preconception, during pregnancy and postpartum in SubSaharan Africa through novel intervention models, Southampton 1000 DaysPlus Global Nutrition, at the University of Southampton
A team of researchers in the UK, South Africa, Burkina Faso, and Ghana is designing and testing nutrition interventions that start before pregnancy and continue through the first two years of a child’s life. This matters because poor nutrition during the “first 1000 days”—from conception to age two—can cause lifelong damage to a child’s physical and cognitive development. Existing programmes often start too late, only during pregnancy, and rarely address the mother’s nutritional health before she conceives. The project also tackles the postpartum period, a neglected window when a mother’s health affects both her own wellbeing and her ability to care for her infant. If successful, the research will produce a set of practical, cost-effective interventions—such as micronutrient supplements or agricultural programmes to improve food security—that can be rolled out through existing health systems in rural and urban sub-Saharan Africa. The team is also developing a community decision-making tool that lets local people choose their own nutrition priorities. The work includes economic modelling to show governments exactly what returns they get for each pound spent on nutrition, making the case for sustained investment.
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Our NIHR Global Nutrition Research Group; Improved Nutrition Preconception, Pregnancy and Post Delivery (INPReP) aims to improve long-term maternal and child health by: 1) developing interventions to support nutrition and health from preconception into early life; 2) strengthening and sustaining capacity to conduct research with translation to policy and impact. The INPReP group are University of Southampton, UK; University of Witwatersrand (Soweto), South Africa; Institut de Recherche en Sciences de la Sante, Clinical Research Unit of Nanoro, Burkina Faso and the Navrongo Health Research Centre, Ghana. The three African INPReP sites capture diversity in terms of rural and urban contexts, and stages within the epidemiological transition. The work combines epidemiological, behavioural and health economic research to design and evaluate novel, nutrition-focussed interventions. Work Package (WP) 1: Policy review and stakeholder engagement activity: In each site, meetings with stakeholders from government departments, research institutions, UN agencies and NGOs engaged in maternal and child nutrition will inform an analysis of nutrition challenges, context and policies. WHO guidelines relevant to the first 1000 days period (conception to 2nd birthday) will be reviewed and fed into stakeholder discussions. Outputs include 1) review of WHO guideline implementation in each country 2) review of maternal and child nutrition policies at national and international level. WP2: Narrative Reviews for Survive and Thrive in Sub-Saharan Africa: The series comprises: 1) review of national and international policies developed to address maternal and child nutrition (from WP1); 2) a conceptual paper based on a review of literature on what is effective at improving nutritional status and health; 3) development of the economic case for nutrition-specific (e.g. micronutrient supplementation programmes) and nutrition-sensitive (e.g. agricultural interventions to improve nutrition security)-interventions (from WP3). WP3: Approach to economic case for interventions during the first thousand days: This comprises: 1) a comprehensive review of the literature on economic approaches to investing in nutrition including both nutrition-specific and nutrition-sensitive interventions; 2) a review of methodology used for evaluating an investment case in the first 1000 days including cost effectiveness and cost benefit analysis in relation to nutrition interventions 3) development of a conceptual and mathematical model and cost-benefit analysis of interventions in the study settings. WP4: Qualitative research with community members: Focus groups discussions with men and women in each site will explore perceived community needs in terms of maternal and child health and obtain input on potential solutions. Findings will feed into the choice of WP6 interventions, and will be used to develop the Choosing Health Plans Altogether Tool whereby communities make decisions about their priorities for supportive nutrition interventions. WP5: Quantitative analysis of existing country-specific evidence for population- or community- strategies for intervention: Existing countrywide, regional or cohort nutrition and health data will be analysed to provide evidence on current nutrition-related health status of the study populations, identify public health strategies that have been implemented, changes in physical/ behavioural environment, and maternal and child health outcomes. Country specific publications will report on nutrition-related exposures and outcomes. WP6: Design, implementation and evaluation of interventions within our communities and existing health systems: From the findings of work packages 1-5 we will compose a list of potential supportive interventions within each study setting. From these, study PIs, colleagues and relevant stakeholders will identify two interventions to evaluate for feasibility and effectiveness in Burkina Faso and Ghana during 20
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