Trial reportPublic health nutrition2018
How immediate and significant is the outcome of training on diversified diets, hygiene and food safety? An effort to mitigate child undernutrition in rural Malawi.
Trial report in Public health nutrition, 2018. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 17 papers, 8 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
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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
17 citing papers in PubMed, 8 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 35 citations in OpenAlex.
- Enablers of successful dissemination of uncommon practices in positive deviance studies for nutrition: A scoping review.BMC nutrition · 2026Pooled it
- Pooled it
- Water, sanitation and hygiene interventions and the prevention and treatment of childhood acute malnutrition: A systematic review.Maternal & child nutrition · 2022Pooled it
- The effectiveness of interventions on nutrition social behaviour change communication in improving child nutritional status within the first 1000 days: Evidence from a systematic review and meta-analysis.Maternal & child nutrition · 2022Pooled it
- Nutrition Education Programs Aimed at African Mothers of Infant Children: A Systematic Review.International journal of environmental research and public health · 2021Pooled it
- A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis of the Potential of Millets for Managing and Reducing the Risk of Developing Diabetes Mellitus.Frontiers in nutrition · 2021Pooled it
- Education of family members to support weaning to solids and nutrition in later infancy in term-born infants.The Cochrane database of systematic reviews · 2020Pooled it
- Agricultural and nutritional education interventions for reducing aflatoxin exposure to improve infant and child growth in low- and middle-income countries.The Cochrane database of systematic reviews · 2020Pooled it
- Global trends of positive deviance research in public health: A bibliometric analysis (1976-2024).Preventive medicine reports · 2025Article
- Risk of child undernutrition in households with life-limiting illness: A cross-sectional study.African journal of primary health care & family medicine · 2025Article
- Pollinator-dependent crops significantly contribute to diets and reduce household nutrient deficiencies in sub-Saharan Africa.Scientific reports · 2023Article
- Nutritional inequalities among under-five children: a geospatial analysis of hotspots and cold spots in 73 low- and middle-income countries.International journal for equity in health · 2022Article
- Effect of Positive Deviance Hearth Intervention on Acute Malnutrition Persistence among Children under Five in Burera District, Rwanda.Rwanda journal of medicine and health sciences · 2022Article
- Age differences in the impact of a Positive Deviance/Hearth programme on the nutritional status of children in rural Bangladesh.Public health nutrition · 2021Article
- Effect of REDD+ projects on local livelihood assets in Keo Seima and Oddar Meanchey, Cambodia.Heliyon · 2020Article
- Advances in Crop Improvement and Delivery Research for Nutritional Quality and Health Benefits of Groundnut (Frontiers in plant science · 2020Review
- Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
11 authors at 1 institution in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
objectiveThe present study examined the impacts of training on nutrition, hygiene and food safety designed by the Nutrition Working Group, Child Survival Collaborations and Resources Group (CORE).
designAdapted from the 21d Positive Deviance/Hearth model, mothers were trained on the subjects of appropriate complementary feeding, water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) practices, and aflatoxin contamination in food. To assess the impacts on child undernutrition, a randomised controlled trial was implemented on a sample of 179 mothers and their children (<2 years old) in two districts of Malawi, namely Mzimba and Balaka. Settings A 21d intensive learning-by-doing process using the positive deviance approach. SUBJECTS: Malawian children and mothers.
resultsDifference-in-difference panel regression analysis revealed that the impacts of the comprehensive training were positive and statistically significant on the Z-scores for wasting and underweight, where the effects increased constantly over time within the 21d time frame. As for stunting, the coefficients were not statistically significant during the 21d programme, although the level of significance started increasing in 2 weeks, indicating that stunting should also be alleviated in a slightly longer time horizon.
conclusionsThe study clearly suggests that comprehensive training immediately guides mothers into improved dietary and hygiene practices, and that improved practices take immediate and progressive effects in ameliorating children's undernutrition.
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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.