Pushti, Improving Nutrition in Bangladeshi Population: From Research to Practice Biomedical Research Group, BIRDEM, Bangladesh

PROJECT DESIGN, TIME SCHEDULE AND RESOURCES
This project is running wth a major financial support by WDF, under their Project WDF05-131. WDF will monitor and evaluate this nutritional prject time to time.

Presently the World Diabetes Foundation supports 105 ongoing projects in developing countries. The total project portfolio to date amounts to USD 108.5 million of which USD 35.5 million have been donated by the World Diabetes Foundation.

The project is divided into sub components and is implementing by 3 Teams

The Biological Team

The Sociocultural Team

The Promotional Team

They are working with coordination in the central level. The activities of the Teams will be synchronized in a logical sequence within a time frame.

Their functions are as follows:
The Biological team: Compilation and standardization of the existing chemical and biological data related to nutrition in Bangladesh, already generated by BMRG or by other reliable institutes/groups, and continued generation of further data.
The Sociocultural team: Compilation of existing socioeconomic, cultural and behavioral data on dietary practices in Bangladeshi communities, and continued generation of data.
The Promotional Team: Transformation of all relevant information and knowledge into popular formats for effective communications among various segments of the population. The team will mainly give the intellectual input and guidance, the actual technical works (e.g. design and development of audiovisual or multimedia program or interactive softwares) has to be subcontracted appropriate partner (s).

From mid-nineties the Government of Bangladesh (GOB) has taken a sector-wide approach in health. During 1998-2003 the program was called Health & Population Sector Program (HPSP), but now it has been renamed as Health, Nutrition and Population Sector Program (HNPSP) due to increasing recognition of nutrition as a component of health. The present project will significantly contribute to HNPSP through original research in our racial and social perspective as well through developing and piloting tools appropriate for our communities. Diabetic Association' of Bangladesh, with its nationwide network of diabetes health care organizations, is now planning active programs for primary prevention of diabetes throughout the country. The present Project will largely complement such an effort.

Goal

The Goal of the project is to improve the nutrition of Bangladeshi diabetic patients and other vulnerable groups (e.g. obese/IGT subjects)through context sensitive data, tools and strategies.

Specific Objectives

a. To accumulate existing information and knowledge on nutrition and diabetes (chemical, biological, cultural and socioeconomic) generated within the ENRECA supported BMRG program as well as from other sources,

b. To translate those cumulated information and knowledge into culturally sensitive educational tools and strategies to promote better nutrition among general population, and

c. To generate further data with a practical goal for enriching the tools and strategies.

For chemical, biological and socioeconomic studies the methods as detailed in various projects will be generally followed and for newer projects appropriate method will be followed or adapted. For piloting the 20 hospitals and health care facilities of the Health Care Development Project (HCDP), a newly implemented project of Diabetic Association of Bangladesh with Dutch Govt support, is been used. The HCDP facilities are spread in and around Dhaka (the capital) as well as in Northern part of Bangladesh up to the upazilla (the lowest administrative stratum) level and these are going to be under a comprehensive ICT network. This has created an unique opportunity to pilot such a nutritional project. The method of piloting will be generally those described for KAP studies (which also contain relevant clinical outcome); however, additional modifications will be done as and when necessary. A minimum number of 20,000 patients will be enrolled in the piloting study.

The project will be implemented by the Biomedical Research Group of BIRDEM and for piloting the HCDP facilities will be used. All of these institutions under the Diabetic Association of Bangladesh and, thus, the project will be administrated under the umbrella of DAB.