Trial reportMaternal & child nutrition2018
Findings from a cluster randomised trial of unconditional cash transfers in Niger.
Trial report in Maternal & child nutrition, 2018. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 9 papers, 3 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
9 citing papers in PubMed, 3 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 15 citations in OpenAlex.
- Evidence on Strategies for Integrating Nutrition Interventions with Health and Immunization Systems in Conflict-affected Areas of Low- and Lower-middle-income Settings-A Systematic Review.Nutrition reviews · 2025Pooled it
- Systematic Review of Interventions Addressing Food Insecurity in Pregnant Women and New Mothers.Current nutrition reports · 2022Pooled it
- Impact of conditional and unconditional cash transfers on health outcomes and use of health services in humanitarian settings: a mixed-methods systematic review.BMJ global health · 2022Pooled it
- The effectiveness and cost-effectiveness of cash plus interventions to prevent acute malnutrition in Somalia: evidence from an adaptive cluster randomised control trial.Journal of global health · 2026Trial
- Findings from a cluster randomised trial of unconditional cash transfers in Niger.Maternal & child nutrition · 2018Trial
- Financing for equity for women's, children's and adolescents' health in low- and middle-income countries: A scoping review.PLOS global public health · 2024Article
- Cash and voucher assistance and children's nutrition status in Somalia.Maternal & child nutrition · 2020Article
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Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
10 authors at 2 institutions in 3 countries.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Unconditional cash transfers (UCTs) are used as a humanitarian intervention to prevent acute malnutrition, despite a lack of evidence about their effectiveness. In Niger, UCT and supplementary feeding are given during the June-September "lean season," although admissions of malnourished children to feeding programmes may rise from March/April. We hypothesised that earlier initiation of the UCT would reduce the prevalence of global acute malnutrition (GAM) in children 6-59 months old in beneficiary households and at population level. We conducted a 2-armed cluster-randomised controlled trial in which the poorest households received either the standard UCT (4 transfers between June and September) or a modified UCT (6 transfers from April); both providing 130,000 FCFA/£144 in total. Eligible individuals (pregnant and lactating women and children 6-<24 months old) in beneficiary households in both arms also received supplementary food between June and September. We collected data in March/April and October/November 2015. The modified UCT plus 4 months supplementary feeding did not reduce the prevalence of GAM compared with the standard UCT plus 4 months supplementary feeding (adjusted odds ratios 1.09 (95% CI [0.77, 1.55], p = 0.630) and 0.93 (95% CI [0.58, 1.49], p = 0.759) among beneficiaries and the population, respectively). More beneficiaries receiving the modified UCT plus supplementary feeding reported adequate food access in April and May (p < 0.001) but there was no difference in endline food security between arms. In both arms and samples, the baseline prevalence of GAM remained elevated at endline (p > 0.05), despite improved food security (p < 0.05), possibly driven by increased fever/malaria in children (p < 0.001). Nonfood related drivers of malnutrition, such as disease, may limit the effectiveness of UCTs plus supplementary feeding to prevent malnutrition in this context. Caution is required in applying the findings of this study to periods of severe food insecurity.
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