Assessment of the Impact of Nutrition Training on the Performance of Community Health Extension Workers in Plateau State, North Central Nigeria

Community Health Extension Workers are frontline health personnel with a critical role in delivering nutrition education, growth monitoring, and referral services at the community level. Their technical performance is directly linked to the quality of pre-service and in-service nutrition training they receive. This study assessed the impact of nutrition training on the performance of Community Health Extension Workers in Plateau State, North Central Nigeria. A post-test-only comparative design was used, comparing performance outcomes between CHEWs who had completed a structured nutrition training module and those who had not. One hundred and twenty CHEWs were assessed using validated performance checklists covering growth monitoring, anaemia prevention counselling, and complementary feeding education. Data were analysed using independent samples t-test and logistic regression. Results showed significantly higher performance scores among trained CHEWs across all assessed competency areas. Trained CHEWs were more likely to conduct accurate anthropometric assessments and deliver evidence-based dietary counselling. Supervision frequency and access to job aids were additional predictors of performance quality. The study recommends institutionalising quarterly nutrition refresher training and deploying structured supervision tools for CHEWs in Plateau State to sustain performance improvements and enhance community nutrition outcomes. Keywords: nutrition training, community health workers, performance assessment, Plateau State, primary healthcare