33.Tulchinsky, T.H., El Ebweini, S. Ginsberg, G.M., Abed, Y., Montano-Cuellar, D., Schoenbaum, M., Zansky, S. M., Jacob, S., El Tibbi, A. J., Abu Sha’aban, D., Koch, J, and Melnick, Y. Growth and Nutrition Patterns of Infants Associated with a Nutrition Education and Supplementation Programme in Gaza, 1987-92. Bulletin of the World Health Organization 1994; 72,6: 869-875.

The article describes a programme initiated by the government health service in Gaza in 1986-88 to address high rates of anemia and to improve infant growth patterns. The programme included training of the staff at the government clinic, introduction of standard growth charts, maternal education and supplementation of vitamins A and D to infants aged 1-12 months. The article presents results of a study of infant growth patterns in five government clinics in Gaza City. A comparison is made between three cohorts of children aged up to 15 month who were born in 1987-88 (prior to the new intervention), 1989 and 1990-92. A marked improvement was noted in growth patterns among the 1989 and 1990-92 cohorts. However, a fall-off was observed among children between 12-15 months for all cohorts, but was particularly marked for the 1990-92 cohort. The authors attribute this fall-off to the reduced attention to the nutrition of over-1-year-old children. No differences were found between the patterns for males and females, while infants from upper socioeconomic categories had better growth patterns.