ArticleHealth policy and planning2015
Perceptions of usage and unintended consequences of provision of ready-to-use therapeutic food for management of severe acute child malnutrition. A qualitative study in Southern Ethiopia.
Article in Health policy and planning, 2015. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 26 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
26 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it, 40 citations in OpenAlex.
- Lay health workers in primary and community health care for maternal and child health: identification and treatment of wasting in children.The Cochrane database of systematic reviews · 2023Pooled it
- Comparative effectiveness of lipid-nutrient spread supplementation regimens for moderate acute malnutrition in Ethiopia: The MODAM-MAM individually randomized controlled trial.PLoS medicine · 2026Trial
- Adequacy of Nutrient Intakes of Severely and Acutely Malnourished Children Treated with Different Doses of Ready-To-Use Therapeutic Food in Burkina Faso.The Journal of nutrition · 2021Trial
- Body composition during outpatient treatment of severe acute malnutrition: Results from a randomised trial testing different doses of ready-to-use therapeutic foods.Clinical nutrition (Edinburgh, Scotland) · 2020Trial
- Impact of reduced dose of ready-to-use therapeutic foods in children with uncomplicated severe acute malnutrition: A randomised non-inferiority trial in Burkina Faso.PLoS medicine · 2019Trial
- Predictors of recovery from uncomplicated severe acute malnutrition among children aged 6-59 months in Kandahar, Afghanistan: a multicentre prospective cohort study.BMC nutrition · 2026Article
- Article
- Acceptability of a reduced dose of therapeutic food in the management of severely acutely malnourished children aged 6-59 months in Mbuji-Mayi, Democratic Republic of Congo.BMC public health · 2026Article
- Article
- Assessment of knowledge and facility compliance with the WHO SAM Guidelines among health professionals in the Volta Region of Ghana.Ghana medical journal · 2025Article
- Weight gain among children under five with severe malnutrition in therapeutic feeding programmes: a systematic review and meta-analysis.EClinicalMedicine · 2025Article
- Effect of diet video-drama and telephone messages on improving parental knowledge and diet diversity of malnourished children in Kenya: A randomised controlled trial.PLOS global public health · 2025Article
- Facilitators and barriers to implementing complex community-based interventions for addressing acute malnutrition in low- and lower-middle income countries: A scoping review.Nutrition and health · 2024Article
- Predictors of time to recovery from uncomplicated severe acute malnutrition among children in eastern Ethiopia.Frontiers in nutrition · 2024Article
- Community perception and utilization of services for the severe wasted children aged 6-59 months in the Forcibly Displaced Myanmar Nationals and their nearest host communities in Bangladesh: a qualitative exploration.Frontiers in nutrition · 2024Article
- Outcomes after Acute Malnutrition Program Adaptations to COVID-19, Uganda, Ethiopia, and Somalia.Emerging infectious diseases · 2022Review
- La pérennité d'un projet de prévention et de prise en charge de la malnutrition au Niger.Canadian journal of public health = Revue canadienne de sante publique · 2022Article
- Barriers and facilitators of nutrition assessment, counseling, and support for tuberculosis patients: a qualitative study.BMC nutrition · 2021Article
- Cost-Effectiveness of 4 Specialized Nutritious Foods in the Prevention of Stunting and Wasting in Children Aged 6-23 Months in Burkina Faso: A Geographically Randomized Trial.Current developments in nutrition · 2020Article
- Factors that May Influence the Effectiveness of 4 Specialized Nutritious Foods in the Prevention of Stunting and Wasting in Children Aged 6-23 Months in Burkina Faso.Current developments in nutrition · 2020Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
5 authors at 3 institutions in 2 countries.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundSevere acute child malnutrition (SAM) is associated with high risk of mortality. To increase programme effectiveness in management of SAM, community-based management of acute malnutrition (CMAM) programme that treats SAM using ready-to-use-therapeutic foods (RUTF) has been scaled-up and integrated into existing government health systems. The study aimed to examine caregivers' and health workers perceptions of usages of RUTF in a chronically food insecure area in South Ethiopia.
methodsThis qualitative study recorded, transcribed and translated focus group discussions and individual interviews with caregivers of SAM children and community health workers (CHWs). Data were complemented with field notes before qualitative content analysis was applied.
resultsRUTF was perceived and used as an effective treatment of SAM; however, caregivers also see it as food to be shared and when necessary a commodity to be sold for collective benefits for the household. Caregivers expected prolonged provision of RUTF to contribute to household resources, while the programme guidelines prescribed RUTF as a short-term treatment to an acute condition in a child. To get prolonged access to RUTF caregivers altered the identities of SAM children and sought multiple admissions to CMAM programme at different health posts that lead to various control measures by the CHWs.
conclusionEven though health workers provide RUTF as a treatment for SAM children, their caregivers use it also for meeting broader food and economic needs of the household endangering the effectiveness of CMAM programme. In chronically food insecure contexts, interventions that also address economic and food needs of entire household are essential to ensure successful treatment of SAM children. This may need a shift to view SAM as a symptom of broader problems affecting a family rather than a disease in an individual child.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.