Introduction
cognitive development among small children
Adequate nutrition is essential to lay the foundation for brain development [In Uganda, healthcare services are provided by the public and the private, not-for-profit sectors, also including faith-based Catholic, Protestant, and Muslim Medical Bureaus [To combat stunting, we conducted the “Child Nutrition and Development Study” (CHNUDEV) in 2013–14, a two-armed, pragmatic cluster-randomized controlled trial (RCT) among mother/child dyads in South-Western rural Uganda (Education interventions involving improvement of mother’s knowledge about nutrition and cognitive stimulation are known to be related to improved child health and survival, and cognitive development [We therefore aimed to assess the cost-effectiveness of the nutritional education intervention in comparison to the current practice, utilizing data from the CHNUDEV project. This analysis of cost-effectiveness was planned subsequent to the completion of the RCT and serves as an early health technology assessment. Our goal was to compare alternatives that would be relevant if local decision-makers were to contemplate expanding the educational intervention in the future.Individual level health outcomes data were obtained directly from the RCT. Costs were initially identified by reviewing publications from the RCT, while more detailed information was obtained by meetings and interviews with RCT researchers and project leader. To the best of our knowledge, there have been no similar studies to assess the cost and cost-effectiveness of an education intervention to improve cognitive development among small children, either in Uganda or elsewhere.