Journal article

Maternal willingness to pay for infant and young child nutrition counseling services in Viet Nam (Nguyen, P.H., 2015. Global Health Action)

31 Aug 15
Author(s)Phuong H. Nguyen, Minh V. Hoang, Nemat Hajeebhoy, Lan M. Tran, Chung H. Le, Purnima Menon, Rahul Rawat
Topic(s): Breastfeeding, Complementary feeding, Maternal Nutrition, Research
Location: East Asia Pacific
Language(s): English
Audience: Program designers and implementers
Programs: Strategic use of data

Alive & Thrive (A&T) Viet Nam, developed and incorporated elements of social franchising into government health services to provide high-quality nutrition counseling services to improve infant and young child feeding (IYCF) practices. One element of franchising that has not yet been implemented is fee for service, which is a potential financing mechanism for sustaining services in the long run. This research aimed to estimate maternal willingness to pay (WTP) for nutrition counseling services and to examine potential factors associated with their WTP. The results from this study provide evidence for instituting user fees as potential financing mechanisms for ensuring sustainability of the model. These results also indicate that nutrition counseling services are highly valued by clients as evidenced from the high reported need and WTP. Consequently, the results call for incorporating preventive nutrition services for children within the health system in Viet Nam.

 
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