Beschreibung:
<jats:p> This study evaluated the impact of providing a small income on the household food expenditures and nutritional status of women employed part-time in a health project. A prospective, nonrandomized, unmasked, controlled trial was conducted in Sarlahi District in rural southeastern Nepal. The study subjects were 870 women who applied for a job with a project distributing nutritional supplements in their villages. Of these women, 736 (85%) completed the two-year follow-up; 341 were hired for the job and 395 were not hired. The intervention consisted of part-time employment that provided a small income, and the outcome was the two-year change in mid-upper-arm circumference (MUAC) and household food expenditures after adjustment for baseline demographic and socioeconomic differences. The women who were hired were younger and better educated than those who were not hired, but in other respects the two groups of women were similar. After adjustment for these baseline differences, the change in MUAC was not significantly different between the two groups of women. The two groups of women also had similar two-year changes in total household food expenditures and in expenditures on meat, clarified butter, fish, eggs, milk, and vegetables. There was a decline in the proportion of households buying milk and ghee, and the decline was significantly smaller in the households of women who were hired. Although employment by the project did not appear to affect the nutritional status of the women or change their overall expenditure on food, households of women who were hired were more likely to be able to continue to buy certain higher-status foods that could have a nutritional benefit for other household members. </jats:p>