HIV Insight: Acceptability & Use of Ready-To-Use Supplementary Food Compared to Corn–Soy Blend as a Targeted Ration in an HIV Program in Rural Haiti

I am taking a medication that makes me want to eat more.I eat a lot because after I take the medication I am hungry.After you swallow the pill you have numbness and it does not feel good, and your chest is hurting. So you should have something to eat after that.

BACKGROUND:

Ready-to-use supplementary food (RUSF) is increasingly used as a component of food rations for adults with HIV.

METHODS:

We undertook a qualitative study to evaluate the acceptability and use of peanut-based RUSF compared to corn-soy blend (CSB) among adults living with HIV in rural Haiti who had been enrolled in a prospective, randomized trial comparing the impact of those rations. A total of 13 focus groups were conducted with 84 participants-42 selected from the RUSF arm of the study, and 42 from the CSB arm-using a guide with pre-designated core topics and open-ended questions.

RESULTS:

We found that RUSF was highly acceptable in terms of taste, preparation, and packaging. Both types of food ration were widely shared inside and outside households, especially with children. However, while CSB was without exception stored with the communal household foodsupply, RUSF was frequently separated from the household food supply and was more often reserved for consumption by individuals with HIV.

CONCLUSIONS:

RUSF was a highly acceptable food ration that, compared to CSB, was more often reserved for use by the individual with HIV.Qualitative examination of the perceptions, use, and sharing of food rations is critical to understanding and improving the efficacy of food assistance for food-insecure people living with HIV.

Full article at: http://goo.gl/va96sr

By: Beckett AG1, Humphries D2, Jerome JG3, Teng JE4, Ulysse P3, Ivers LC5.

1Internal Medicine Residency, Department of Medicine, Brigham & Women's Hospital, 75 Francis St., Boston, MA 02115 USA ; Department of Medicine, Boston Children's Hospital, Boston, MA USA ; Partners In Health, Boston, MA USA.
2Department of Epidemiology of Microbial Disease, Yale School of Public Health, 60 College Street, Ste 318, New Haven, CT 06510 USA.
3Zanmi Lasante, St. Marc, Haiti ; Zanmi Lasante, 18A, Santo 18, Croix-des-Bouquets, Haiti.
4Internal Medicine Residency, Department of Medicine, Brigham & Women's Hospital, 75 Francis St., Boston, MA 02115 USA ; Partners In Health, Boston, MA USA ; Division of Global Health Equity, Brigham & Women's Hospital, 641 Huntington Avenue, Boston, MA 02115 USA.
5Internal Medicine Residency, Department of Medicine, Brigham & Women's Hospital, 75 Francis St., Boston, MA 02115 USA ; Partners In Health, Boston, MA USA ; Division of Global Health Equity, Brigham & Women's Hospital, 641 Huntington Avenue, Boston, MA 02115 USA ; Department of Global Health and Social Medicine, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA USA.
AIDS Res Ther. 2016 Feb 17;13:11. doi: 10.1186/s12981-016-0096-9. eCollection 2016.