Role of compliance with nutritional supplementation during pregnancy : comparison of data from Guatemala and Indonesia

The issues of who participates in these food supplementation programs and who actually consumes these supplements, as well as what factors foster participation by the intended recipients, are of concern both to researchers interested in the biological response to supplementation and to program planners and policy makers interested in improving the health and nutritional status of undernourished pregnant women. However, these issues have never previously been studied in any detail. The research reported here provides a review of the relevant literature, a conceptual framework from which specific research hypotheses were generated, secondary data analyses related to these hypotheses, and conclusions and recommendations for research, programs, and policy developed from these specific analyses. The data bases used for this research come from the four village study in rural, highland (El Progreso) Guatemala conducted by investigators from the Institute of Nutrition of Central America and Panama (INCAP) and the East Java Pregnancy Study (EJPS) in Madura, Indonesia, conducted by investigators from Airlangga University, Surabaya, Indonesia, and the Royal Tropical Institute, Amsterdam, The Netherlands. These studies were carried out in two very different cultures and ecological environments that together are representative of conditions experienced by many women in developing countries. (Author abstract)