Impacts of Vitamin A Degradation on the Effectiveness and Cost-Effectiveness of Vitamin A Fortification Programs: Modeled Evidence for Preschool Children in Nigeria
Modeled evidence demonstrates the effect of vitamin A degradation on program effectiveness and cost-effectiveness in preschool children in Nigeria, suggesting improvements are needed.
Key Points
The research aims to evaluate how the degradation of vitamin A affects the effectiveness and cost-effectiveness of fortification programs for young children in Nigeria.
Modeled impacts using secondary data to assess vitamin A inadequacy prevalence.
Estimated program costs with activity-based models.
Utilized the Lives Saved Tool to estimate child-lives saved and analyze degradation effects.
Vitamin A degradation significantly reduced program effectiveness, with reductions in inadequacies ranging from 2.9 to 0.7 percentage points for sugar fortification.
Average annual child-lives saved decreased markedly across the degradation range: from 3984 to 769 (sugar), 3036 to 739 (wheat flour), and 15,301 to 7153 (bouillon cubes).
Cost per child-life saved ranged from US$ 550 to US$ 2848 for sugar fortification, indicating high variation based on degradation levels.