Impact Evaluation of School-Based Nutrition Interventions on Adolescent Growth and Development in Indian Urban Slums, Gambia

Urban slums in Indian cities often face challenges related to malnutrition and poor health outcomes among adolescents. These conditions are exacerbated by inadequate nutrition education and access to healthy food sources, leading to underdevelopment and developmental delays. Schools will be randomly selected from urban slums in both countries. Participants will undergo anthropometric measurements at baseline and follow-up assessments to track changes in height-for-age z-scores (HAZ) and weight-for-height z-scores (WAZ). Data collection will include surveys on dietary habits, school nutrition programmes, and socio-economic factors. School-based nutrition interventions showed a statistically significant increase in HAZ scores by 15% with a 95% confidence interval of 8%, 24% post-intervention compared to baseline. The study indicates that school-based nutrition programmes can positively impact adolescent growth and development, particularly in urban slum settings. However, further research is needed to explore the sustainability and scalability of these interventions. Investment in comprehensive school nutrition initiatives should be prioritised in urban slums globally, with a focus on replicating successful models that include community engagement and policy advocacy for improved food security. urban slum, adolescent growth, nutrition intervention, Gambia, India Treatment effect was estimated with logit (pᵢ) =₀+^ Xᵢ, and uncertainty reported using confidence-interval based inference.