Effect of school feeding program on body mass index of primary school adolescents in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia: A prospective cohort study

BACKGROUND: Governments and developmental organizations are encouraged to devote adequate resources to the establishment of free school meals to low-income children in developing countries. In Ethiopia, the school feeding program (SFP) is implemented in a few regions including the capital, Addis Ababa. However, the nutritional benefit of the program was not monitored and reported thus far. In this study, we evaluated the effect of the SFP on the body mass index (BMI) of primary school adolescents in Addis Ababa, Central Ethiopia. METHOD: A prospective cohort study was employed to collect data from 644 SFP-beneficiary adolescents (n = 322) and non-SFP (n = 322). Nutritional outcomes were measured following 6 months of follow-up. WHO Anthroplus were used to convert anthropometric data into body-mass-index-for-age Z scores. The independent effect of school feeding is analyzed through a multivariable linear regression model. RESULT: In linear regression, unadjusted model (Model 1), compared with the non-school-fed adolescents, the mean difference in difference of BAZ-score of school-fed adolescent was higher by 0.36 (β 0.36, 95% CI 0.17, 0.55). The beta coefficient remained positive after adjusted for age and sex (Model 2: β 0.35, 95% CI 0.16, 0.54) and sociodemographic variable (Model 3: β 0.35, 95% CI 0.16, 0.54). In the final model, adjusted for model four, lifestyle and health status there was a significant difference in favor of school-fed adolescents on BAZ-score indices (Model 4: β 0.4, 95% CI 0.18–0.62). On the contrary, for a unit increase in family size, the BAZ score will decrease by 0.06 (β 0.06, 95% CI −0.12–−0.01). Similarly, adolescents with a middle tertile wealth index decreased their BAZ score by 0.30 (β 0.30, 95% CI −0.55–−0.05) as compared to the higher tertile wealth index. CONCLUSION: School feeding was positively associated with a change in BAZ score whereas family size and middle tertile wealth index were negatively associated. This implies that school feeding can serve as an optimal strategy for addressing the nutrition needs of adolescents.