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STUDY PROTOCOL article

Front. Public Health
Sec. Public Health and Nutrition
Volume 12 - 2024 | doi: 10.3389/fpubh.2024.1420310
This article is part of the Research Topic Food Insecurity, Food Environment, Malnutrition and Obesity in Low- and Medium-Income Countries View all 9 articles

Randomized Community Trial to Assess Nutritional, Socioeconomic, and Health Outcomes of a Food Forest Initiative in Santa Elena Province, Ecuador: A Study Protocol

Provisionally accepted
Marco Faytong-Haro Marco Faytong-Haro 1*Alonso Quijano-Ruiz Alonso Quijano-Ruiz 2Daniel Sanchez Daniel Sanchez 2Patricio Alvarez-Munoz Patricio Alvarez-Munoz 1Stephanie Gallegos-Caamano Stephanie Gallegos-Caamano 2Victor Yambay-Delgado Victor Yambay-Delgado 3Karina Checa Karina Checa 4Andrea Angulo-Prado Andrea Angulo-Prado 5
  • 1 State University of Milagro, Milagro, Guayas, Ecuador
  • 2 Ecuadorian Development Research Lab, Daule, Ecuador
  • 3 Espiritu Santo University, Guayaquil, Guayas, Ecuador
  • 4 CECAPROF, Guayaquil, Ecuador
  • 5 Tecnologico Argos, Guayaquil, Ecuador

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

    Malnutrition is an escalating concern in low-and-middle-income countries (LMICs), including Ecuador, particularly within rural settings. To address this issue, food forests emerge as a promising intervention. This research protocol outlines a controlled intervention in the province of Santa Elena, aiming to evaluate the efficacy of a food forest in enhancing nutritional outcomes, with potential implications for broader replication. The study will be conducted in the Colonche Parish of Santa Elena Canton, where one commune will be randomly selected to receive the food forest intervention. In contrast, another similarly characterized commune, also randomly selected through cluster-based sampling, will serve as a control group, receiving no intervention. This randomized, comparative approach will enable a more precise assessment of the food forest's impact. Data collection will occur at three intervals: baseline, six months, and twelve months post-intervention. Comprehensive questionnaires will be employed to measure the food forest's influence on the communities' nutritional, economic, and health metrics, distinguishing between the intervention and control communes to elucidate the intervention's specific effects.

    Keywords: Food forest, nutrition, Rural area, Ecuador, intervention, Pre-post study, three time slots Con formato: Inglés (Estados Unidos) Con formato: Fuente: Sin Negrita, Inglés (Estados Unidos) Con formato: Fuente: Sin Negrita Con formato: Sangría: Primera línea: 0 cm

    Received: 19 Apr 2024; Accepted: 11 Nov 2024.

    Copyright: © 2024 Faytong-Haro, Quijano-Ruiz, Sanchez, Alvarez-Munoz, Gallegos-Caamano, Yambay-Delgado, Checa and Angulo-Prado. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

    * Correspondence: Marco Faytong-Haro, State University of Milagro, Milagro, Guayas, Ecuador

    Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.