Baseline characteristics of participating tolas, women and children
| Participating tolas | Intervention (n=28) | Control (n=28) | P value |
| Connected to a paved road (n, %) | 28 (100) | 27 (96) | 0.3 |
| Distance from main road (km) (median, IQR) | 1 (0.3–4) | 0.9 (0.45–3.5) | 0.8 |
| PDS* shop (n, %) | 11 (39) | 14 (50) | 0.4 |
| Government primary school (n, %) | 28 (100) | 27 (96) | 0.3 |
| Other school (n, %) | 13 (46) | 8 (29) | 0.2 |
| Primary health centre (n, %) | 0 (0) | 0 (0) | – |
| Presence of an ASHA* worker (n, %) | 26 (93) | 27 (96) | 0.6 |
| Presence of an ANM† (n, %) | 26 (93) | 25 (89) | 0.6 |
| Presence of a water tap or pipeline (n, %) | 0 (0) | 0 (0) | – |
| Presence of electricity supply (n, %) | 28 (100) | 28 (100) | – |
| Participating women | Intervention (n=756) | Control (n=804) | P value |
| Number of women per tola (median, IQR) | 25.5 (17.5 to 38) | 27 (18.5 to 36.5) | 0.9 |
| Age in years (mean, SD) | 27.6 (5.5) | 27.6 (5.3) | 0.9 |
| Family owns land (n, %) | 100 (13) | 64 (8) | 0.001 |
| Able to travel outside of tola without permission from male relative (n, %) | 61 (8) | 27 (3) | <0.001 |
| Able to read and write (n, %) | 158 (21) | 132 (16) | 0.05 |
| Attended school (n, %) | 145 (19) | 103 (13) | 0.001 |
| Participating children | Intervention (n=1175) | Control (n=1294) | P value |
| Median (IQR) no. of children per tola | 43 (27–57) | 47 (28–59) | 0.6 |
| No. of men, (%) | 612 (52) | 650 (50) | 0.4 |
| Mean (SD) age in months | 30.9 (16.8) | 31.2 (16.9) | 0.6 |
| Born at home (n, %) | 356 (30) | 359 (28) | 0.2 |
| Road to health‡ card (n, %) | 1055 (90) | 1166 (90) | 0.8 |
| Immunised§ (n, %) | 1125 (96) | 1257 (97) | 0.06 |
| Baseline nutritional measures of participating children | Intervention | n Intervention¶ | Control | n Control¶ | P value** |
| WHZ (mean, SD) | −1.00 (1.16) | 808 | −0.94 (1.00) | 910 | 0.3 |
| HAZ (mean, SD) | −2.00 (1.29) | 808 | −2.14 (1.33) | 910 | 0.03 |
| WAZ (mean, SD) | −1.89 (1.10) | 985 | −1.96 (1.10) | 1170 | 0.2 |
| MUAC (mean, SD) | 13.6 (1.14) | 933 | 13.6 (1.25) | 1080 | 0.5 |
| Wasted (n, %) | 159 (20) | 808 | 138 (15) | 910 | 0.01 |
| Stunted (n, %) | 399 (49) | 808 | 489 (54) | 910 | 0.07 |
| Underweight (n, %) | 436 (44) | 985 | 548 (47) | 1170 | 0.2 |
| MUAC <12.5 cm (n, %) | 122 (13) | 933 | 176 (16) | 1080 | 0.04 |
| MUAC <11.5 cm (n, %) | 24 (3) | 933 | 44 (4) | 1080 | 0.06 |
Intervention=immediate Rojiroti. Control=delayed Rojiroti.
*ASHA, Accredited Social Health Activists (local women, trained in health promotion).
†ANM, Auxiliary Nurse Midwife (village level maternal and child health worker).
‡Road to health card is a summary of health and growth of the child in the first 5 years of life.
§Immunisation defined as maternal recall of any immunisation received by the child.
¶The number of children contributing to each outcome measure is given in each row.
**P values from t-test for continuous outcomes and χ2 for binary outcomes.
††PDS, public distribution system (a network of subsidised government stores).
HAZ, height for age Z score; MUAC, mid-upper arm circumference; WAZ, weight for age Z score; WHZ, weight for height Z score.