Investigating novel biomarkers of egg consumption

Malawi

Conduct a nutrition impact study to validate the impact of a six-month long demand creation campaign on the feeding behaviors of pregnant women, lactating mothers, and children under the age of two. The six-month-long campaign will be held in four treatment villages. The result of the campaign will be compared with feeding behaviors in four control villages where the campaign will not be implemented. This will help causally establish the impact of demand creation on the consumption of eggs.

The methodology for biomarker assessment (untargeted metabolomics) has been established from a controlled egg consumption study in children of 6-9 months. Specific biomarkers in the urine relate to egg consumption. A targeted mass spectrometry assay was developed which will quantitatively detect the biomarkers. The quantified egg consumption will be correlated with child growth.

Children, 6 to 24 months old, will be enrolled from eight villages. The social marketing campaign to raise awareness about the benefits of eggs will be implemented in four villages, while the other four will not be exposed to a social marketing campaign. The enrolled children will provide basic demographic and health information, anthropometric measurements, and give a urine sample for analysis of biomarkers to correlate with egg consumption.