News Article
February 21, 2012
Duke Med Student Studies Impacts of Nutritional Supplement on Malnourished Children
Every hour, 300 children around the world die of malnutrition. The malnutrition crisis is especially evident in Haiti where one in 10 children is malnourished and one in five is underweight. Chronic malnutrition weakens a child’s immune system, putting them at greater risk of death from diarrhea or pneumonia.
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| Wiegert follows the progress of Haitian children who received the RUTF supplement. |
Working to fight against these alarming predictions, Duke third year medical student Kate Wiegert is completing her field research year in Haiti with the Family Health Ministries (FHM), a partner organization of the Duke Global Health Institute. Under the mentorship of DGHI faculty member David Walmer, Wiegert is working with Haitian staff at FHM’s Blanchard clinic in Port-au-Prince to evaluate and enroll children into the organization’s child malnutrition prevention program.
The FHM program targets severely malnourished infants and toddlers to receive medical check-ups and six to eight weekly batches of ready-to-use therapeutic food (RUTF), which is a high-protein, high-energy nutritional supplement designed to treat severely malnourished children in low-resource settings.
Wiegert’s research is investigating whether the RUTF improves the health of the children over time. She and FHM employee Annaus Franckel track the children using GPS technologies at program enrollment and at six and 12 month follow-ups. Wiegert and Franckel also want to determine whether the program is targeting the most severe cases and are identifying nutritional practices that encourage healthy children.
As an extension of this work, Weigert is educating parents about how to keep their children and communities healthy. The medical student’s research has the potential to shed light on maternal behaviors like breastfeeding and contraceptive practices, as well as additional child health issues in the region.