Research Project Completed 2016

A special nutrition study for Mission Against Malnutrition Project in Bellary district

Agency: JSW (routed through Bhoruka Charitable Trust)

Research Team:Dr Manoj Kumar Gupta, Dr Sreenath Reddy, Dr Biranchi N Jena, Mr Angan Sengupta, Dr Veena R, Ms Sharmila S, Ms Juby A Jose, Mr Mahadev Prasad

IHMR Bangalore has developed a research study as a part of Jindal Steel Works (JSW) Foundation's “Mission against Childhood Malnutrition programme”, in Bellary district, which is a CSR activity for them. JSW is aiming to reduce the burden of malnutrition in the study area by providing Spirulina as supplementary food for 6 months to 6 years children. IIHMR has proposed a research study for the same to find out the effectiveness of Spirulina along with many other research questions. This is an action research in which 4 pronged strategy (Biochemical assessment, Anthropometric examination, Clinical evaluation and Cognitive development assessment) has been adopted for complete assessment of nutritional status of 1000 moderately and severely malnourished children of age group 6months - 6yrs in Bellary district. Biochemical tests are set which has been performed for subset (300 baseline and 300 endline) of those selected malnourished children and are comprised of 8 different types of tests to find out the exact micronutrient deficiency, so that the approach can be modified in the right direction.

Key Words:Malnutrition, CSR, Spirulina, Biochemical, Anthropometry, Clinical, Nutrition, Micronutrient

Development of Nutrition Policy for the State of Karnataka

Agency: UNICEF, Hyderabad Office, India

Project Team: Dr. Usha Manjunath

Karnataka State has made impressive strides in some of the human development indicators and further plans to promote social, economic and political empowerment of women, ensure development and protection of children through various policies and programmes in the areas of health, nutrition and child protection. IIHMR, Bangalore is a technical partner for the above projects to UNICEF, Hyderabad office, India. UNICEF and Department of Women and Child Development, GoK are collaboratively developing a plan for Strategic Communication for Children in Karnataka, primarily addressing the issues related to nutrition and health of women, children and child protection. IIHMR, Bangalore will be the technical partner to UNICEF in assessing the baseline of Knowledge, Attitudes and Practice in the above areas. Community awareness and practice on nutrition, maternal health (ANC & PNC), new born/child care, child protection/rights, child marriages, delaying marriage/first pregnancy and spacing methods will be specifically examined. The research will use mixed methods including quantitative and qualitative methodologies including house hold survey, in-depth interviews and FGDs of key stakeholders. This community based cross sectional study to collect the baseline information as per the identified indicators will be carried out in 20 villages in two districts of Karnataka, namely, Mysore and Koppal. The research results will establish the baseline to further evaluate the effectiveness and impact of Strategic Behavior Change Communication Intervention Strategies that are proposed to be implemented in the State of Karnataka. Nutrition Policy for the State of Karnataka is proposed to be drafted through desk research, review of existing nutrition policies of other states of India, literature review on various aspects of nutrition, programmes, innovative solutions to address malnutrition and expert consultation in partnership with UNICEF.

Assessment of psychosocial status and quality of life of adolescent girls in rural area of Bellary, Karnataka

Agency:IIHMR Society, Jaipur

Research Team:Dr Manoj Kumar Gupta, Dr Veena R, Ms An-Lies Provost

This is an internal research grant project allocated by IIHMR society, Jaipur. This study is intended to assess the psychosocial status and quality of life of the adolescent girls by using WHO’s modified ‘HEEADSSS’ approach and WHOQOL-BREF tool, respectively. HEEADSSS questionnaire has been modified consideration rural background to make it simple, favourable and appropriate to rural adolescent girls. It includes eight parameters viz. Home, Education and Employment, Eating, Activities, Drugs, Sexuality, Suicide and Depression and Safety. WHOQOL-BREF tool assess the health related quality of life. It took into consideration four domains of quality of life i.e. physical, psychological, environmental and social relationship.

Key Words:Adolescents, Psychosocial Status, HEEADSSS, WHOQOL-BREF, Quality of Life, Sexuality, Safety

Monitoring of EHS Services

Agency:Suvarna Arogya Suraksha Trust (SAST), KHSDRP, Govt. of Karnataka

Research Team:Dr Reshmi RS, Dr Biranchi N Jena, Dr S Reddy, Mr Kiran Angadi

The overall objective is to compile all available sources of information related to Emergency Health Services and make an assessment of the availability of Emergency Health Services in Karnataka, including its geospatial analysis using GIS tools. The specific objectives are:

1.To compile information on existing Emergency Health Facilities in the State.
2.To map the information on accidents and emergencies available from multiple sources along with health facility, roads and other information.
3.To analyze the spatial distribution of EHS and to identify the gaps.
4.Contribute to the analysis of gaps and to help SAST prepare an action plan to address the gaps

In order to compile information on existing Emergency Health Services (EHS) in Karnataka, a review of literature has been done based on all the existing literature on EHS. Based on the existing studies, working definition for Emergency Health Services and Emergency Health Facility was done. The project uses secondary data from various sources like Emergency Management and Research Institute (EMRI), Suvarna Arogya Suraksha Trust (SAST), Directorate of Health and Family Welfare Services, Bangalore, and Survey Settlement and Land Records Office, Bangalore. The secondary data will be analyzed using Excel and necessary tables will be generated. Also, GIS analysis will be done using the package SaTScan. Based on the data analysis and emergency health facility available, hospitals in Karnataka will be categorized based into different levels and accident hotspots as well as the facilities would be plotted into maps.

Keywords: EHS, SAST, SaTScan

Base line Study for Strategic Behavior Change Communication Intervention for Maternal Health and Child Development in Karnataka

Agency: UNICEF, Hyderabad Office, India

Project Team: Dr. Usha Manjunath, Dr. Manoj Kumar Gupta, Dr. Sarala Raju, Dr. Veena R., Mr. Angan Sengupta, Mr. Rajendra. D, Mr Santosh Daddi

Objective of the study

To assess the awareness level about nutrition among adolescents and the practice of menstrual hygiene.
To understand the knowledge, attitude and practice of the community about the disadvantages of child marriage and the health benefits of delaying marriage, first pregnancy and use of spacing method.
To understand the health seeking behavior of women an all aspects of ANC, delivery and PNC.
To assess the knowledge and practice regarding different aspects of new born and child care.
To assess the level of awareness of the community regarding child protection regarding child protection and scheme related to it.

This is a community based cross sectional study for collecting the baseline information as per the indicators; study will be done for a period of 5 months. The study will be conducted in 2 district of Karnataka where one from north Koppal, and another from south Mysore in each district 30 villages are taken where 10 villages will be control, 20 villages will be interventional of that 10 will be implemented from GAARM and 10 from the state government, sample selected based on the probability proportion to size sampling technique. Before commencement of baseline data collection a quick socio demographic survey will be conducted of adolescent girls, pregnant women, recently delivered mothers, mothers of 1 to 5 year children and reproductive age group women. The data will be collected by different household survey tool for different respondents, FGD and in-depth interview. The data analysis will be done using Microsoft excel and SPSS v.16. the survey will conducted for checking the indicators like % of adolescent girls awareness about nutrition, menstrual hygiene, risk for developing psycho-social abnormalities, health benefits of delaying marriage and first pregnancy.% of ANC coverage, birth preparedness, knowledge about nutrition, misconceptions, health benefits of delaying marriage, % of instutional delivery, level of care % of child immunization, women following hygiene practices. Knowledge about violence and abuse, level of awareness and usage of social welfare, awareness about disadvantages of early marriage will also be assessed.

Keywords: nutrition, health seeking behavior, ANC, PNC, Adolescents, Pregnant women, Child protection

Assessment of Nutritional status of adolescent girls in Karnataka

Agency: IIHMR Society, Jaipur

Research Team: Mr Angan Sengupta, Dr Manoj Kumar Gupta, Dr Veena R, Ms An-Lies Provost

This is an internal research grant project allocated by IIHMR society, Jaipur. The objectives of the study are to assess the dietary intake, dietary pattern and physical activity of rural adolescent girls in Bellary district of Karnataka. To assess the dietary intake 24 hour dietary recall, and 3 days dietary recall methods have been used. A interview schedule has been developed to assess the dietary pattern and physical activity.

Key Words: Adolescents, Nutrition, dietary intake, 24 hour dietary recall

Consultancy project

End-line Evaluation of “Primary Education Project for Deaf Children-Karnataka”

Agency: Deaf Child Worldwide, U.K. (DCW and Big Lottery Fund) and Association for People with Disability, Bangalore (APD)

Evaluators/Consultants: Dr. Usha Manjunath, IIHMR, Bangalore and Dr. Nagendra Prasad (Freelancer)

The Association of People with Disabilities (APD) implemented a project, called ‘Primary Education for Deaf Children ’ in selected 3 districts of Karnataka state, namely Vijayapura (Bijapur), Davanagere and Chikkabalapur with support from ‘Deaf Child Worldwide’ (DCW) and with financial assistance from ‘The Big Lottery Fund’. The project aimed at providing elementary education to deaf children identified in 9 blocks of the above districts from June 2012 to May 2016, with an agreed extended period of 6 months i.e. up to December-2016. An end line project evaluation completed in the month of December 2016 by two external evaluators namely Dr. Usha Manjunath and Dr. Nagendra Prasad provides a number of insights and policy directions for ‘Deaf Children Primary Education’. This project provides the much needed evidence based information for a ‘Community based inclusive education for deaf children in rural and semi-urban areas’. The end line evaluation included mixed research methodologies and a total of 445 stakeholders were interviewed for data collection. About 350 to 360 stakeholders were met through focus group discussions (FGDs) & in-depth interviews (IDIs) to understand qualitative impact patterns from the project.

All the children in the project cycle (790) were admitted (newly), readmitted (who may have discontinued) or continuing education showed 100% admissions in normal schools at local level (most of them in Government Schools). Overall retention rates of the Deaf children in schools are 96.41%, which is more than the retention rates of formal school going children in the system. In the span of four and half years, almost all children enrolled in the project (790) showed significant improvements in communication (Total Communication including Indian Sign Language), access to services/government schemes for the deaf, educational/learning environment at home and school, social life and overall personality development. The stakeholders including deaf children, their parents, school teachers, community members, Gram Panchayat/Zilla Parishad/Municipality/City Corporation officials, project staff/community level rehabilitation workers and Government Officials of Education Department gave an overwhelming positive response about the project impact in terms of relevance, viability, scale and scope. Further, APD’s concept of ‘Model School’ to “build disable friendly & inclusive environment for Children with Disability (CwDs) in the age group of 6-16 years with 10 -12 children per model school in the inclusive school setup to enable them to access quality education & rehabilitation under the same roof” was found successful in the districts of Vijayapura (Bijapur) and Davanagere.

Strongest impact was seen (more than 80% of the deaf children enrolled) in the following areas:

Educational Status Improvement
Utilization of government services/schemes
Parent’s participation and
Improvement in Total Communication with ISL as a major language.

A final report with implications on replicability and policy in deaf child primary education were submitted.

Research Project Completed 2016

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