Evaluating the Impact of the Food Support Program (Programa de Apoyo Alimentaria)

July 25, 2012 updated by: Instituto Nacional de Salud Publica, Mexico

Evaluating the Impact of the Programa de Apoyo Alimentaria

The Programa de Apoyo Alimentaria (PAL) started in 2003 and is targeted to communities in Mexico that do not receive benefits from other federal food aid programs, have less than 2,500 inhabitants and a high level of marginalization. Marginalization is a term used in Mexico for the multidimensional assessment of poverty in a community.

When the program started in 2003 it provided beneficiary households either a cash transfer of 150 Mexican pesos (equivalent to approximately 14 USD at the time) per month or a monthly food basket with a cost to the program of 150 pesos. The size of the cash transfer and the amount of food was the same for all households, i.e. no adjustments for family size or composition were made. The basket contained a number of staple and basic food products and powdered whole milk (Liconsa), which is fortified with Zn, Fe, Vitamin C, and folate (Table 1). The composition of the food basket conformed to the Mexican norm for food aid programs (NOM-169-SSA1-1998), which states that food transfers need to provide at least 20% of the recommended daily energy and protein requirements. Beneficiary households were required to attend nutrition and health education sessions and had to participate in program related logistic activities in order to receive the benefits. These program conditionalities, however, were not strictly enforced.

A community randomized controlled intervention trial was used to evaluate the impact of the intervention. A random sample of 208 rural communities was drawn from the pool of eligible communities in 8 of the poorest states in the South/Eastern region of Mexico (Chiapas, Guerrero, Oaxaca, Quintana Roo, Tabasco, Campeche, Yucatan and Veracruz). Within each community a random sample of 33 households was selected. The baseline survey was conducted from October 2003 to April 2004. After baseline data collection, the 208 selected communities (6,687 households) randomly assigned to one of four study groups: food basket without education (52 communities, 1657 households), food basket with education (52 communities, 1680 households), cash transfer with education (53 communities, 1687 communities) or control (51 communities, 1663 households). Treatment allocation was carried out by the Ministry of Social Development.

Study Overview

Status

Completed

Conditions

Intervention / Treatment

Study Type

Interventional

Enrollment (Actual)

6687

Phase

  • Not Applicable

Contacts and Locations

This section provides the contact details for those conducting the study, and information on where this study is being conducted.

Study Locations

  • Mexico
    • Morelos
      • Cuernavaca, Morelos, Mexico, 62100
        • Instituto Nacional de Salud Publica

Participation Criteria

Researchers look for people who fit a certain description, called eligibility criteria. Some examples of these criteria are a person's general health condition or prior treatments.

Eligibility Criteria

Ages Eligible for Study

  • Child
  • Adult
  • Older Adult

Accepts Healthy Volunteers

No

Genders Eligible for Study

All

Description

Inclusion Criteria:

  • Live in a community that does not receive benefits from other federal food aid programs, have less than 2,500 inhabitants and a high level of marginalization. Marginalization is a term used in Mexico for the multidimensional assessment of poverty in a community. It takes into account housing quality (including the percent of households without piped water, without sewage and without electricity), income (proportion of household below two times the minimum wage), education (including illiteracy) and urbanization.
  • Households within these communities were eligible if they fell below the "needs" poverty line as defined by the Mexican Ministry of Social Development. This corresponds to an income level sufficient to cover basic needs in food consumption, health and education.

Study Plan

This section provides details of the study plan, including how the study is designed and what the study is measuring.

How is the study designed?

Design Details

  • Allocation: Randomized
  • Interventional Model: Parallel Assignment
  • Masking: None (Open Label)

Arms and Interventions

Participant Group / Arm
Intervention / Treatment
Experimental: Control
Other: Control
No benefits were provided
Experimental: Food basket w/o nutrition education
Other: Food basket w/o nutrition education
A monthly food basket with a cost to the program of 150 pesos. The amount of food was the same for all households, i.e. no adjustments for family size or composition were made. The basket contained a number of staple and basic food products and powdered whole milk (Liconsa), which is fortified with Zn, Fe, Vitamin C, and folate. The composition of the food basket conformed to the Mexican norm for food aid programs (NOM-169-SSA1-1998). Households received the transfer once every 2 mo. Beneficiary households were not required to attend nutrition and health education sessions.
Experimental: Food basket + nutrition education
Other: Food basket + nutrition education
Monthly food basket with a cost to the program of 150 pesos. The amount of food was the same for all households, i.e. no adjustments for family size or composition were made. The basket contained a number of staple and basic food products and powdered whole milk (Liconsa), which is fortified with Zn, Fe, Vitamin C, and folate. The composition of the food basket conformed to the Mexican norm for food aid programs (NOM-169-SSA1-1998). Households received the transfer once every 2 mo. Beneficiary households were required to attend nutrition and health education sessions and had to participate in program related logistic activities in order to receive the benefits. These program conditionalities, however, were not strictly enforced.
Experimental: Cash + health and nutrition education
Other: Cash + nutrition education
Cash transfer of 150 Mexican pesos (equivalent to approximately 14 USD at the time) per month. The size of the cash transfer and the amount of food was the same for all households, i.e. no adjustments for family size or composition were made. Households received the transfer once every 2 mo. Beneficiary households were required to attend nutrition and health education sessions and had to participate in program related logistic activities in order to receive the benefits. These program conditionalities, however, were not strictly enforced.

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure
Child nutritional status

Secondary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure
Household food consumption

Other Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure
Body weight

Collaborators and Investigators

This is where you will find people and organizations involved with this study.

Sponsor

Instituto Nacional de Salud Publica, Mexico

Collaborators

Secretaría de Desarrollo Social (SEDESOL)

Investigators

  • Principal Investigator: Teresa Gonzalez de Cossio, PhD, National Institute of Public Health

Publications and helpful links

The person responsible for entering information about the study voluntarily provides these publications. These may be about anything related to the study.

General Publications

Study record dates

These dates track the progress of study record and summary results submissions to ClinicalTrials.gov. Study records and reported results are reviewed by the National Library of Medicine (NLM) to make sure they meet specific quality control standards before being posted on the public website.

Study Major Dates

Study Start

October 1, 2003

Primary Completion (Actual)

December 1, 2005

Study Completion (Actual)

December 1, 2005

Study Registration Dates

First Submitted

February 25, 2011

First Submitted That Met QC Criteria

February 25, 2011

First Posted (Estimate)

February 28, 2011

Study Record Updates

Last Update Posted (Estimate)

July 26, 2012

Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria

July 25, 2012

Last Verified

February 1, 2011

More Information

Terms related to this study

Keywords

Additional Relevant MeSH Terms

Other Study ID Numbers

  • INSP01

This information was retrieved directly from the website clinicaltrials.gov without any changes. If you have any requests to change, remove or update your study details, please contact register@clinicaltrials.gov. As soon as a change is implemented on clinicaltrials.gov, this will be updated automatically on our website as well.

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