Trial reportPaediatric and perinatal epidemiology2020
Environmental exposures and child and maternal gut microbiota in rural Malawi.
Trial report in Paediatric and perinatal epidemiology, 2020. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 18 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
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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
18 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it.
- Socioeconomic position and the gut microbiota: a narrative synthesis of the association and recommendations.Gut microbes · 2026Pooled it
- Gut Prevotella stercorea associates with protection against infection in rural African children.Nature communications · 2025Trial
- Longitudinal Analysis of the Intestinal Microbiota among a Cohort of Children in Rural and Urban Areas of Pakistan.Nutrients · 2023Trial
- Lack of Associations between Environmental Exposures and Environmental Enteric Dysfunction among 18-Month-Old Children in Rural Malawi.International journal of environmental research and public health · 2022Trial
- Infant gut microbiota characteristics generally do not modify effects of lipid-based nutrient supplementation on growth or inflammation: secondary analysis of a randomized controlled trial in Malawi.Scientific reports · 2020Trial
- Environmental exposures and child and maternal gut microbiota in rural Malawi.Paediatric and perinatal epidemiology · 2020Trial
- Effects of Seasonality and Air Pollution on the Nasal Microbiota in Healthy Italian Adults.Hygiene and environmental health advances · 2026Article
- Global analysis of infant gut microbiota revealed distinctive maturation dynamics across lifestyles.NPJ biofilms and microbiomes · 2026Article
- Segmented filamentous bacteria are worldwide human gut commensals.Nature communications · 2026Article
- Changes in Healthy Infant Gut Microbiota over the Past Decades.Neonatology · 2026Article
- Prevotella stercorea increases fat deposition in Jinhua pigs fed alfalfa grass-based diets.Journal of animal science and biotechnology · 2025Article
- Gut Microbiota of Sarawak's "Orang Ulu" Indigenous Community in East Malaysia Reveals Vanish Microbes: A Comparison With Urban Communities.British journal of biomedical science · 2025Article
- Gut microbiota patterns associated with duration of diarrhea in children under five years of age in Ethiopia.Nature communications · 2024Article
- A Scoping Review Evaluating the Current State of Gut Microbiota Research in Africa.Microorganisms · 2023Article
- Iron Supplementation at the Crossroads of Nutrition and Gut Microbiota: The State of the Art.Nutrients · 2022Review
- Associations between Gut Microbiota and Intestinal Inflammation, Permeability and Damage in Young Malawian Children.Journal of tropical pediatrics · 2022Article
- Gut microbiomes from Gambian infants reveal the development of a non-industrialized Prevotella-based trophic network.Nature microbiology · 2022Article
- Probiotics and probiotic-based vaccines: A novel approach for improving vaccine efficacy.Frontiers in medicine · 2022Review
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
10 authors.
Funding
Abstract
backgroundGut microbiota composition is associated with child health, but the effect of the environment on microbiota composition is not well understood. Few studies have been conducted in low-income settings where childhood malnutrition is common and possibly related to microbiota composition.
objectivesTo investigate whether gut microbiota composition in young children and their mothers is associated with different environmental exposures in rural Malawi. We hypothesized that more adverse environmental exposures would be associated with lower levels of microbiota maturity and diversity.
methodsFaecal samples from up to 631 children and mothers participating in a nutrition intervention trial were collected at 1, 6, 12, 18, and 30 months (children) and at 1 month (mothers) after birth and analysed for microbiota composition with 16S rRNA sequencing. Bacterial OTU and genus abundances, measures of microbiota maturity and diversity, and UniFrac distances were compared between participants with different environmental exposures. The exposure variables included socio-economic status, water source, sanitary facility, domestic animals, maternal characteristics, season, antibiotic use, and delivery mode.
resultsMeasures of microbiota maturity and diversity in children were inversely associated with maternal education at 6, 18, and 30 months and did not otherwise differ consistently between participants with different environmental exposures. Phylogenetic distance was related to season of stool sample collection at all time points. At the level of individual OTUs and genera, season of stool sample collection, type of water source, and maternal education showed most associations with child gut microbiota, while HIV status was the most important predictor of relative OTU and genus abundances in mothers.
conclusionThe results do not support the hypothesis that adverse environmental exposures are broadly associated with lower microbiota maturity and diversity but suggest that environmental exposures influence the abundance of several bacterial OTUs and genera and that low maternal education is associated with higher microbiota maturity and diversity.
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