Evaluation of the Effectiveness of Cost-free Nutrition Programme on Children in Reo Health District, Burkina Faso

Background: The community management for acute malnutrition (CMAM) was started in 2012 with the aim toimpact the lives of a large number of children suffering from acute malnutrition without any cost. Objective: Thestudy aimed at evaluating the effectiveness of the CMAM program on severe acute malnutrition (SAM) andmoderate acute malnutrition (MAM) treatment. Methods: Children aged 6 to 59 months were screened formalnutrition in a complementary compulsory screening program. Acutely malnourished children underwent freemedical and nutritional treatment. Evaluation of the CMAM program implementation was performed bycomparison with paid services by collecting data from malnourished children’s parents. Results: From the 64458screened children, 835 were diagnosed as new acutely malnourished cases and referred to health centers fortreatment. The anthropometric parameters (MUAC, weight, height) have significantly improved from the time ofadmission to the end of treatment. Performance indicators using the Sphere standards were above the expectedlevel for outpatient treatment but for inpatient treatment, it failed to meet the expected standard. Poverty and theuse of traditional medicine to treat malnutrition, distance, availability, and cost of transportation to the healthcenter were significant barriers to the continuation of healthcare services. Conclusion: The CMAM program iseffective. It covered and allowed the treatment of several children presenting the number of pathologies reducingchildren's morbidity and mortality. In order to increase children’s nutritional status, it will be helpful to workwith traditional healers.