Evidence map›Paper›PMID 32885807›Full record

SynthesisThe American journal of clinical nutrition2020

Predictors of inpatient mortality among children hospitalized for severe acute malnutrition: a systematic review and meta-analysis.

Radhini Karunaratne, Jonathan P Sturgeon, Rajvi Patel, Andrew J Prendergast

Open access · hybridAbstract readMeta-AnalysisSystematic Review
In one paragraph

Synthesis in The American journal of clinical nutrition, 2020. 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
3.5field-weighted citation impact, top 7% 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, 60 citations in OpenAlex.

  1. Pooled it
  2. Pooled it
  3. Trial
  4. Article
  5. Article
  6. Article
  7. Article
  8. Review
  9. Observational
  10. High-frequency monitoring enables machine learning-based forecasting of acute child malnutrition for early warning.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2025
    Article
  11. Article
  12. Article
  13. Article
  14. Review
  15. Article
  16. Article
  17. Article
  18. Review
  19. Article
  20. Article
4 · The record

Corrections and comments

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

4 authors at 2 institutions in 2 countries.

Radhini KarunaratneZvitambo Institute for Maternal and Child Health Research, Harare, Zimbabwe.
Jonathan P SturgeonZvitambo Institute for Maternal and Child Health Research, Harare, Zimbabwe.
Rajvi PatelBarts and the London School of Medicine and Dentistry, Queen Mary University of London, London, United Kingdom.
Andrew J PrendergastZvitambo Institute for Maternal and Child Health Research, Harare, Zimbabwe.
Queen Mary University of London · GBZvitambo Institute for Maternal and Child Health Research · ZW

Funding

Medical Research Council MR/K012711/1Wellcome TrustWellcome Trust 108065/Z/15/ZWellcome Trust 220566/Z/20/Z
6 · The paper itself

Abstract

backgroundMalnutrition underlies 45% of under-5 deaths globally. Severe acute malnutrition (SAM) is the most serious form of undernutrition, characterized by wasting with or without edema. Mortality remains high (10%-40%) among children requiring hospitalization for complicated SAM.

objectivesWe aimed to systematically document the factors independently associated with inpatient mortality in children with SAM.

methodsEmbase, Ovid MEDINE, the Cochrane Library, and clinicaltrials.gov were searched for articles published between January 2000 and January 2020, using a prespecified protocol. Eligible studies included children aged ≤59 mo hospitalized with SAM and used multivariable analysis to assess the baseline factors independently associated with inpatient mortality. Random-effects meta-analysis, stratified by the stated measure of effect, was used where >20% of studies included the same factor in analyses.

resultsTwenty-eight of 1432 studies fulfilled inclusion criteria: 19 studies included all children with SAM and 9 included specific subgroups of children with SAM. All 19 main studies were from 8 countries across Africa, with a median of 400 children/study. The mean inpatient mortality was 15.7% (95% CI: 10.4%, 21.0%) and HIV prevalence ranged from 2.1% to 51%. Nine factors were included in the meta-analysis, stratified by HR and OR. HIV infection (HR: 4.32; 95% CI: 2.31, 8.08), weight-for-height z score (WHZ) (OR: 0.44; 95% CI: 0.24, 0.80), diarrhea (HR: 2.84; 95% CI: 1.40, 5.75), pneumonia (HR: 1.89; 95% CI: 1.19, 3.02), presence of shock (HR: 3.67; 95% CI: 2.24, 6.03), and lack of appetite (HR: 2.16; 95% CI: 1.48, 3.16) were associated with increased mortality, whereas child age and sex were not. The association between edema and mortality was difficult to ascertain from the available studies.

conclusionsHIV infection, diarrhea, pneumonia, shock, lack of appetite, and lower WHZ are independent predictors of inpatient mortality in children with SAM. These factors may help to risk-stratify children being hospitalized with complicated SAM.This systematic review/meta-analysis protocol was registered at www.crd.york.ac.uk/prospero as CRD42019152267.

Indexed as

Hospital MortalityChild, PreschoolFemaleHospitalizationHumansInfantInfant, NewbornInpatientsMaleSevere Acute MalnutritionchildinpatientmalnutritionmortalitypredictorsSAMsevere acute malnutrition

Identifiers

PMID32885807
PMCPMC7528552
OpenAlexW3083046006

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.