Small Fish Big Impact: Improving Nutrition during Pregnancy and Lactation, and Empowerment for Marginalized Women

Nutrients. 2024 Jun 11;16(12):1829. doi: 10.3390/nu16121829.

Abstract

Undernutrition and micronutrient deficiencies such as anemia are considered significant public health challenges in Bangladesh, which enhancing fish consumption is a well-established food-based intervention to address these. This paper documents the establishment of community-based fish chutney production and reports the impact of its consumption on mid-upper arm circumference (MUAC) and hemoglobin (Hb) levels among targeted 150 pregnant and lactating women (PLW) in rural Bangladesh. A fish chutney was developed using locally available ingredients followed by a series of laboratory tests, including nutrient composition, shelf-life and food safety. A community-based fish chutney production process was designed to: (1) supply locally available ingredients for processing; (2) establish two fish drying sites; (3) initiate a community-based production site; and (4) distribute fish chutney to PLW for one year by six women nutrition field facilitators. Then a pre- and post-intervention study was designed for a selected 150 PLW to receive 30 g of fish chutney daily for 12 months. Differences in mean MUAC and Hb levels pre- and post-consumption were analyzed using one-way analysis of variance. Consumption of 30 g of fish-chutney resulted in significant increases of the mean values of Hb levels and MUAC among the targeted PLW.

Keywords: anemia; community-based intervention; first 1000 days of life; food-based intervention; pregnant and lactating women; women empowerment.

MeSH terms

  • Adult
  • Animals
  • Bangladesh
  • Empowerment
  • Female
  • Fishes*
  • Hemoglobins / analysis
  • Hemoglobins / metabolism
  • Humans
  • Lactation*
  • Malnutrition / prevention & control
  • Maternal Nutritional Physiological Phenomena
  • Nutritional Status*
  • Pregnancy
  • Rural Population
  • Seafood
  • Young Adult

Substances

  • Hemoglobins

Grants and funding

This research was funded by the Department for International Development (DFID) and the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (CDC). The publication of this article was funded by the Faculty of Information Technology at Monash University Australia.