Evidence map›Paper›PMID 31767002›Full record

ReviewBMC medicine2019

Body composition of children with moderate and severe undernutrition and after treatment: a narrative review.

Jonathan C K Wells

Open access · goldAbstract readReview
PubMed Full text at PMC Publisher
In one paragraph

Review in BMC medicine, 2019. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 33 papers, 2 of them syntheses that pooled it.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
33citing papers in PubMed, 2 pooled it
3.8field-weighted citation impact, top 6% of its field
1 · What the graph read from 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.

2 · The registry

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.

3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

33 citing papers in PubMed, 2 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 63 citations in OpenAlex.

  1. Pooled it
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  7. The gut microbiota in malnutrition.Nature reviews. Microbiology · 2026
    Review
  8. Article
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  13. Association Between Trunk Fat Mass Index and Diabetes in a Multinational Population.Mayo Clinic proceedings. Innovations, quality & outcomes · 2025
    Article
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4 · The record

Corrections and comments

PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

1 author at 1 institution in 1 country.

Jonathan C K WellsChildhood Nutrition Research Centre, Population, Policy and Practice Research and Teaching Department, University College London (UCL) Great Ormond Street Institute of Child Health, 30 Guilford Street, London, WC1N 1EH, UK. jonathan.wells@ucl.ac.uk.
University College London · GB

Funding

No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.

6 · The paper itself

Abstract

backgroundUntil recently, undernourished children were usually assessed using simple anthropometric measurements, which provide global assessments of nutritional status. There is increasing interest in obtaining more direct data on body composition to assess the effects of undernutrition on fat-free mass (FFM) and its constituents, such as muscle and organs, and on fat mass (FM) and its regional distribution. MAIN TEXT: Recent studies show that severe-acute undernutrition, categorised as 'wasting', is associated with major deficits in both FFM and FM that may persist in the long-term. Fat distribution appears more central, but this is more associated with the loss of peripheral fat than with the elevation of central fat. Chronic undernutrition, categorised as 'stunting', is associated with deficits in FFM and in specific components, such as organ size. However, the magnitude of these deficits is reduced, or - in some cases - disappears, after adjustment for height. This suggests that FFM is largely reduced in proportion to linear growth. Stunted children vary in their FM - in some cases remaining thin throughout childhood, but in other cases developing higher levels of FM. The causes of this heterogeneity remain unclear. Several different pathways may underlie longitudinal associations between early stunting and later body composition. Importantly, recent studies suggest that short children are not at risk of excess fat deposition in the short term when given nutritional supplementation.

conclusionThe short- and long-term functional significance of FFM and FM for survival, physical capacity and non-communicable disease risk means that both tissues merit further attention in research on child undernutrition.

Indexed as

Body CompositionAdolescentBody Mass IndexChildChild Nutrition DisordersChild, PreschoolFemaleGrowth DisordersHumansInfantMaleWasting SyndromeBody compositionChild undernutritionStuntingUndernutritionWasting

Identifiers

PMID31767002
PMCPMC6878632
OpenAlexW2990724417

What OpenQuestion holds

Textmetadata
LicenceCC BY
Read underepoch 390

Registered trials

None linked

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.