SynthesisMaternal & child nutrition2020
Systematic review of the treatment of moderate acute malnutrition using food products.
Synthesis in Maternal & child nutrition, 2020. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 27 papers, 5 of them syntheses 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
27 citing papers in PubMed, 5 syntheses or guidelines pooled it.
- Pooled it
- Systematic Review of Management of Moderate Wasting in Children over 6 Months of Age.Nutrients · 2023Pooled it
- Effectiveness of Food-Based Intervention to Improve the Linear Growth of Children under Five: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis.Nutrients · 2023Pooled it
- Current evidence on the effectiveness of Ready-to-Use Supplementary Foods in children with moderate acute malnutrition: a systematic review and meta-analysis.Journal of nutritional science · 2023Pooled it
- Systematic review of the treatment of moderate acute malnutrition using food products.Maternal & child nutrition · 2020Pooled 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
- Effectiveness of decentralizing outpatient acute malnutrition treatment with community health workers and a simplified combined protocol: a cluster randomized controlled trial in emergency settings of Mali.Frontiers in public health · 2024Trial
- Treating high-risk moderate acute malnutrition using therapeutic food compared with nutrition counseling (Hi-MAM Study): a cluster-randomized controlled trial.The American journal of clinical nutrition · 2021Trial
- Impact of food supplements on early child development in children with moderate acute malnutrition: A randomised 2 x 2 x 3 factorial trial in Burkina Faso.PLoS medicine · 2020Trial
- The gut microbiota in malnutrition.Nature reviews. Microbiology · 2026Review
- Key Stakeholders' Perspectives on Acute Malnutrition Management Programs for Children Under Five in Bangladesh: Qualitative Insights.Maternal & child nutrition · 2025Article
- Infants and children 6-59 months of age with moderate wasting: evidence gaps identified during WHO guideline development.BMJ global health · 2025Article
- Nutrient Content and Sensory Acceptability of Home-Based Therapeutic Food to Treat Children 6-59 Months With Moderate Acute Malnutrition.Food science & nutrition · 2025Article
- Dietary outcomes of moderately wasted children treated in a food voucher program in Cameroon's Far North: a three-month longitudinal study.BMC nutrition · 2025Article
- Supplementation with ready-to-use therapeutic food has no effect on adverse outcomes among undernourished children aged 6-59 months with severe pneumonia.Frontiers in nutrition · 2025Article
- The effect of socioeconomic factors on malnutrition in Syrian children aged 0-6 years living in Turkey: a cross-sectional study.BMC public health · 2024Article
- Evidence on the impact of community health workers in the prevention, identification, and management of undernutrition amongst children under the age of five in conflict-affected or fragile settings: a systematic literature review.Conflict and health · 2024Review
- Article
- Oral nutritional supplementation with dietary counseling improves linear catch-up growth and health outcomes in children with or at risk of undernutrition: a randomized controlled trial.Frontiers in nutrition · 2024Article
- The intersection of undernutrition, microbiome, and child development in the first years of life.Nature communications · 2023Review
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
6 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
There is currently a lack of international guidance on the most appropriate treatment for moderate acute malnutrition (MAM), and discrepancies in national treatment guidelines exist. We aimed to explore whether food interventions are effective for MAM children 6-59 months old and whether they result in better outcomes compared with no treatment or management with nutrition counselling. A systematic literature search was conducted in October 2018, identifying studies that compared treating MAM children with food products versus management with counselling or no intervention. A total of 673 abstracts were screened, 101 full texts were read, and one study was identified that met our inclusion criteria. After broadening the criteria to include micronutrients in the control group and enrolment based on out-dated anthropometric criteria, 11 studies were identified for inclusion. Seven of these found food products to be superior for anthropometric outcomes compared with counselling and/or micronutrient supplementation; two of the studies found no significant benefit of a food product intervention; and two studies were inconclusive. Hence, the majority of studies in this review found that food products resulted in greater anthropometric gains than counselling or micronutrient interventions. This was especially true if the supplementary food provided was of suitable quality and provided for an adequate duration. Improving quality of and adherence to counselling may improve its effectiveness, particularly in food secure contexts. There is currently a paucity of comparable studies on this topic as well as a lack of studies that include important functional outcomes beyond anthropometric proxies.
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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.