Social franchising and a nationwide mass media campaign increased the prevalence of adequate complementary feeding in Vietnam: A cluster-randomized program evaluation

We evaluated the impact of enhanced IPC + MM + CM (intensive) compared with standard IPC + less-intensive MM and CM (nonintensive) on CF practices and anthropometric indicators. Groups were similar at baseline. In ITT analyses, there were no significant differences between groups in changes in CF practices over time. In the MPAs, greater improvements in the intensive than in the nonintensive group were seen for minimum dietary diversity [DDE: 6.4 percentage points (pps); P < 0.05] and minimum acceptable diet (8.0 pps; P < 0.05). Significant stunting declines occurred in both intensive (7.1 pps) and nonintensive (5.4 pps) groups among children aged 24–59.9 mo, with no differential decline. Conclusions: When combined with MM and CM, an at-scale social franchising approach to improve IPC, delivered through the existing health care system, significantly improved CF practices, but not child growth, among mothers who used counseling services at least once. A greater impact may be achieved with strategies designed to increase service utilization.