Nutrition Intervention Among Ethnic Minority Children Aged 5-16 Years in Tra Vinh Province, Vietnam

May 8, 2026 updated by: Bui Thi Hoang Lan, University of Medicine and Pharmacy at Ho Chi Minh City

Nutritional Status, Associated Factors, and Preliminary Effectiveness of a Nutrition Health Education Intervention Among Ethnic Minority Children Aged 5-16 Years in Tra Vinh Province, Vietnam

The goal of this study is to evaluate the effectiveness of a nutrition health education intervention among ethnic minority children aged 5-16 years in Tra Vinh Province, Vietnam. It will also assess factors associated with nutritional status in this population.

The main questions it aims to answer are:

Does the nutrition health education intervention improve nutritional status? Does the intervention improve nutrition-related knowledge, attitudes, and practices (KAP)? Does the intervention improve diet quality and physical activity levels among participants?

Researchers will compare participants receiving the nutrition education intervention with control group to evaluate the effectiveness of the intervention.

Participants in intervention group will:

Participate in a structured nutrition education program delivered monthly for 4 months through interactive lessons, videos, and educational materials Receive ongoing support and reinforcement activities for an additional 2 months Attend baseline and follow-up assessments including anthropometric measurements and interviews Complete questionnaires on nutrition knowledge, dietary practices, and physical activity

Study Overview

Status

Completed

Conditions

Intervention / Treatment

Study Type

Interventional

Enrollment (Actual)

811

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

  • Vietnam
    • Tra Vinh
      • Thanh pho Tra Vinh, Tra Vinh, Vietnam
        • Community Health Centers in Tra Vinh Province

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

Accepts Healthy Volunteers

Yes

Description

Inclusion Criteria:

  • Ethnic minority children aged 5-16 years
  • Living in selected communities or attending selected schools
  • Consent from parents/caregivers and assent from children

Exclusion Criteria:

  • Congenital deformities affecting anthropometry
  • Medical conditions affecting body composition measurement
  • Inability to participate in interviews

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

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

Arms and Interventions

Participant Group / Arm
Intervention / Treatment
Experimental: intervention group
Participants receive a structured nutrition health education intervention delivered through community-based and school-based models. The program includes four monthly educational sessions using presentations and videos, supported by interactive posters, nutrition leaflets, and dietary and physical activity diaries. The intervention is implemented over four months, followed by a two-month maintenance phase with reinforcement activities involving community health workers, school staff, and family engagement.
Behavioral: Nutrition Health Education
A multi-component nutrition health education program delivered through community-based and school-based models. For children aged 5-10 years, both children and their caregivers participate in nutrition education sessions at local health stations. For children aged 11-16 years, the intervention is delivered at ethnic minority boarding schools. The program consists of four monthly structured sessions using presentations and videos, supported by interactive posters, nutrition leaflets, and dietary and physical activity diaries. The key topics include: (1) nutrients and health, (2) prevention of undernutrition and overweight/obesity, (3) healthy dietary habits, and (4) physical activity promotion. The intervention lasts four months, followed by a two-month maintenance phase with reinforcement by community health workers, school staff, and family engagement.
No Intervention: control group
Participants do not receive the structured nutrition education intervention. They continue to receive routine health and nutrition education activities available at local community health centers and schools without additional intervention from the study.

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure
Measure Description
Time Frame
Change in BMI-for-age z-score
Time Frame: Baseline and 6 months
Weight and height will be combined to report BMI in kilogram/meters^2. BMI-for-age z-score calculated according to the 2007 WHO growth standards.
Baseline and 6 months
Change in prevalence of malnutrition (including undernutrition and overweight/obesity)
Time Frame: Baseline and 6 months
Proportion of participants with abnormal nutritional status, including undernutrition (stunting, underweight, or thinness) and overweight/obesity, classified according to WHO growth reference standards based on age- and sex-specific z-scores.
Baseline and 6 months

Secondary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure
Measure Description
Time Frame
Change in nutrition-related knowledge, attitudes, and practices (KAP)
Time Frame: Baseline and 6 months

Nutrition knowledge, attitudes, and practices assessed using a structured questionnaire developed based on the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations Guidelines for assessing nutrition-related knowledge, attitudes and practices.

Knowledge scores ranged from 0 to 11, attitude scores from 0 to 17, and practice scores from 0 to 8, with higher scores indicating better nutrition knowledge, more favorable nutrition attitudes, and better nutrition practices.
Baseline and 6 months
Change in diet quality scores
Time Frame: Baseline and 6 months

Diet quality was assessed using the Diet Quality Questionnaire (DQQ), including the Dietary Diversity Score (DDS) and the Global Dietary Recommendations (GDR) score.

The Dietary Diversity Score (DDS) ranges from 0 to 10 based on the number of food groups consumed, with higher scores indicating greater dietary diversity.

The Global Dietary Recommendations (GDR) score ranges from 0 to 18 and reflects adherence to global dietary recommendations for protection against non-communicable diseases, with higher scores indicating better adherence to recommended dietary patterns.
Baseline and 6 months
Change in physical activity levels
Time Frame: Baseline and 6 months
Physical activity levels assessed using a standardized questionnaire, including frequency and duration of moderate-to-vigorous physical activity.
Baseline and 6 months
Change in skeletal muscle mass
Time Frame: Baseline and 6 months
Skeletal muscle mass (SMM), measured in kilograms using bioelectrical impedance analysis with an InBody analyzer.
Baseline and 6 months
Change in body fat mass
Time Frame: Baseline and 6 months
Body fat mass (BFM), measured in kilograms using bioelectrical impedance analysis with an InBody analyzer.
Baseline and 6 months
Change in fat-free mass
Time Frame: Baseline and 6 months
Fat-free mass (FFM), measured in kilograms using bioelectrical impedance analysis with an InBody analyzer.
Baseline and 6 months

Collaborators and Investigators

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

Sponsor

University of Medicine and Pharmacy at Ho Chi Minh City

Investigators

  • Principal Investigator: Truc T Thanh, PhD, University of Medicine and Pharmacy at Ho Chi Minh City

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

Helpful Links

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 (Actual)

November 6, 2024

Primary Completion (Actual)

April 27, 2025

Study Completion (Actual)

April 27, 2025

Study Registration Dates

First Submitted

May 1, 2026

First Submitted That Met QC Criteria

May 8, 2026

First Posted (Actual)

May 13, 2026

Study Record Updates

Last Update Posted (Actual)

May 13, 2026

Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria

May 8, 2026

Last Verified

May 1, 2026

More Information

Terms related to this study

Keywords

Additional Relevant MeSH Terms

Other Study ID Numbers

  • IRB No. 493/HDDD-DHYD

Plan for Individual participant data (IPD)

Plan to Share Individual Participant Data (IPD)?

YES

IPD Plan Description

The data presented in this study are available on request from the corresponding author.

IPD Sharing Time Frame

De-identified individual participant data and supporting documents will be available beginning 6 months after publication and ending 5 years after publication.

IPD Sharing Access Criteria

De-identified individual participant data and supporting documents will be available upon reasonable request to the corresponding author for academic research purposes.

IPD Sharing Supporting Information Type

  • STUDY_PROTOCOL
  • SAP
  • ANALYTIC_CODE

Drug and device information, study documents

Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated drug product

No

Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated device product

No

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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