Improving Nutritional Counseling in Hyderabad, India: A Pilot Study
type: CreativeWork
description: BACKGROUND: If not addressed before the age of five, pediatric undernutrition can lead to irreversible long term health effects, including death. Mild to moderate pediatric undernutrition specifically contributes to 83% of malnutrition-related deaths in children. India has one of the world's largest prevalence rates for mild to moderate pediatric undernutrition. In India, improving nutritional counseling for caregivers of undernourished children is the most effective and sustainable way to reduce the prevalence of pediatric undernutrition. LOCAL PROBLEM: Staff at the Niloufer Hospital nutritional counseling center in Hyderabad, India were concerned that their counseling sessions were not aligned with international guidelines for these sessions and consistent between patients. It was unknown how reliable these sessions were. Therefore, the aim of this study was to increase the reliability of the evidence-based practice for nutritional counseling given at a nutritional center in Hyderabad, India by 25% by March 2017. Reliability was defined as how often counseling sessions followed 100% of international guidelines appropriate for a given patient. METHODS: The quality improvement methodologies of DMAIC (Define-Measure-Analyze-Improve-Control) and PDSA (Plan-Do-Study-Act) were used. The design and improvement of the interventions was carried out with PDSA cycles within the larger DMAIC methodology. During the define phase, a project charter was established and it was found that locally adapted WHO-UNICEF counseling guidelines were the best practice for this setting. During the measure phase, observation of counseling sessions showed that the sessions were given orally by nurses, without visual aids, and were inconsistent from patient to patient. A study to measure reliability and compliance of current practices and future intervention was created. Compliance is the percentage of topics covered out of the total topics listed in the age-appropriate guidelines for a given …
abstract: BACKGROUND: If not addressed before the age of five, pediatric undernutrition can lead to irreversible long term health effects, including death. Mild to moderate pediatric undernutrition specifically contributes to 83% of malnutrition-related deaths in children. India has one of the world's largest prevalence rates for mild to moderate pediatric undernutrition. In India, improving nutritional counseling for caregivers of undernourished children is the most effective and sustainable way to reduce the prevalence of pediatric undernutrition. LOCAL PROBLEM: Staff at the Niloufer Hospital nutritional counseling center in Hyderabad, India were concerned that their counseling sessions were not aligned with international guidelines for these sessions and consistent between patients. It was unknown how reliable these sessions were. Therefore, the aim of this study was to increase the reliability of the evidence-based practice for nutritional counseling given at a nutritional center in Hyderabad, India by 25% by March 2017. Reliability was defined as how often counseling sessions followed 100% of international guidelines appropriate for a given patient. METHODS: The quality improvement methodologies of DMAIC (Define-Measure-Analyze-Improve-Control) and PDSA (Plan-Do-Study-Act) were used. The design and improvement of the interventions was carried out with PDSA cycles within the larger DMAIC methodology. During the define phase, a project charter was established and it was found that locally adapted WHO-UNICEF counseling guidelines were the best practice for this setting. During the measure phase, observation of counseling sessions showed that the sessions were given orally by nurses, without visual aids, and were inconsistent from patient to patient. A study to measure reliability and compliance of current practices and future intervention was created. Compliance is the percentage of topics covered out of the total topics listed in the age-appropriate guidelines for a given …
author: Kotamraju, Swetha
language: en
keywords: Counseling, Health Education, India, Malnutrition, Quality Improvement
date published: 2019-06-03T21:26:45Z
date modified: 2026-07-24T05:52:08Z
provider: University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center
publisher: Networked Digital Library of Theses and Dissertations
type: WebPage
source organization: University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center

PropertyValue
property ID: Handle
value: https://hdl.handle.net/2152.5/6629