Last March, the recruitment phase of participants for the MuCCUA study concluded, with a total of 1423 pregnant women. This research, led by the Infectious Diseases group of the Vall d'Hebron Research Institute (VHIR), is part of the CRESCER project and aims to prevent chronic malnutrition in southern Angola. This disease has a high impact on neurocognitive development in childhood and is associated with a greater vulnerability to suffer some infectious diseases such as diarrhea or pneumonia.

The women participating in the study will be divided into three groups to compare interventions for the prevention of chronic malnutrition, which affects more than 40% of children in the southern region of the country.

Participants will be divided into three groups. One of them will consist of a control group in which standard care measures to prevent malnutrition are applied. In addition, two different types of interventions will be tested: one sensitive and one nutrition-specific, both applied in combination and compared to the control. These interventions consist, on the one hand, of nutritional supplementation combined with standard care and, on the other hand, of cash transfers combined with standard care. The research team will follow the children born to the participants until they are two years old. From this point, it will be determined whether these interventions have a significant impact on the prevention of chronic malnutrition and mortality in children under 2 years of age, on prenatal and postnatal care, and on the attitudes and eating habits of these families, among others.

With 713 women in the province of Huila and 710 in Cunene, the recruitment activities were led by the #CRESCER project team, with the support of Community Activities Assistants (AAC), Community Development and Health Agents (ADECOS) under the tutelage of the Local Development Institute (FAS), supervisors and local authorities.

Medical students from the University Mandume ya Ndemufayo (UMN) together with nursing students from the Polytechnic Institute of Ondjiva (IPO) conducted the surveys with the support of the ADECOS, who translated the questions into local languages.

The CRESCER project is the fourth component of the FRESAN Program - Strengthening Food and Nutrition Resilience and Security in Angola. As part of the bilateral partnership between the Government of Angola and the European Union, FRESAN aims to reduce hunger, poverty and vulnerability in the affected communities.