A community nutrition project in Viet Nam: effects on child morbidity

Household gardens VACVINA promoted the establishment and improvement of household gardens based on the VAC ecosystem, a system developed in Viet Nam to promote a diet that is more diversified and balanced than the traditional diet, which is based mainly on rice. The system encourages the combination T o reduce vitamin A deficiency in Viet Nam, a community nutrition project was implemented from 1991 to 1993. The project activities included: •raising household garden production, particularly of carotene-rich fruits and vegetables; •nutrition education of mothers of children five years of age and under; •baseline and follow-up monitoring of vitamin A status, household garden production, food intake and growth patterns of young children. The data from the Nutrition Improvement Project provided a rare opportunity to monitor the effects of community nutrition education and family gardening on morbidity in young children. Acute respiratory and diarrhoeal infections are the major causes of mortality in infants and young children in Viet Nam (Viet Nam Ministry of Health, 1993), as in many other developing countries. This article describes the Nutrition Improvement Project and a separate study that assessed the project’s impact on acute respiratory and diarrhoeal infections in children.