Delivering Vitamin A Supplements to Children Aged 6 to 59 Months: Comparing Delivery Through Mass Campaign and Through Routine Health Services in Ethiopia.

BACKGROUND: The delivery of vitamin A supplements in Ethiopia has been shifting from Child Health Days (campaigns) to routine delivery via the community health services.

OBJECTIVE: The objective of this study was to compare the cost and effectiveness of these 2 delivery methods. No previous studies have done this.

METHODS: A mixed method approach was used. Quantitative data on costs were collected from interviews with key staff and coverage data from health facility records. Qualitative data on the 2 modalities were collected from key informants and community members from purposefully sampled communities using the 2 modalities.

RESULTS: Communities appreciated the provision of vitamin A supplements to their under 5-year-old children. The small drop in coverage that occurred as a result of the change in modality can be attributed to normal changes that occur with any system change. Advantages of campaigns included greater ease of mobilization and better coverage of older children from more remote communities. Advantages of routine delivery included not omitting children who happened to miss the 1 day per round that supplementation occurred and not disrupting the availability of other health services for the 5 to 6 days each campaign requires. The cost of routine delivery is not easy to measure nor is the cost of disruption to normal services entailed by campaigns.

CONCLUSION: Cost-effectiveness likely depends more on effectiveness than on cost. Overall, the routine approach can achieve good coverage and is sustainable in the long run, as long as the transition is well planned and implemented.