Do nutritional programs help the targeted populations in developing countries?
To examine the efficiency of the Bangladesh Integrated Nutritional Program (BINP) in identifying which infants should be supplemented, whether full supplementation was given for the stipulated period of time, and whether the correct exit criteria from the supplementation program were used. To test whether targeted food supplementation of infants between 6-12 months of age resulted in enhanced weight gain. Five hundred and twenty-six infants followed for 6 to 12 months. Out of these, 368 should have received supplementation based on BINP criteria but only 111 infants (30%) did so, while a further 13% were incorrectly given supplementation. So in total over half (52.8%) of the sample was incorrectly identified for supplementation. In addition, less than a quarter of the infants received the full 90 days of supplementation and close to half of the infants exit the program without the requisite weight gain. There were no significant differences in weight gain between the correctly suppleme
