ArticleFrontiers in public health2023
Treatment outcomes and associated factors for hospitalization of children treated for acute malnutrition under the OptiMA simplified protocol: a prospective observational cohort in rural Niger.
Article in Frontiers in public health, 2023. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. It is linked to trial NCT07592260 (OptiMAx), which is not on this map. Cited by 9 papers.
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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.
OptiMAx: Incentivizing EPI Vaccination Via Distribution of SQ-LNS Nutritional Supplementation to Children From Age 6-11 Months Until 18 Months of Age in Rural Chad and Niger, With a Cost Effectiveness Analysis Protocol for a Research Study Nested in the OptiMA Research Study in Ngouri Health District, Lake Region, Chad and Mirriah Health District, Zinder Region, Niger
Who cites it
9 citing papers in PubMed, 9 citations in OpenAlex.
- Linear Growth During Treatment With a Simplified, Combined Protocol: Secondary Analyses of Severely Wasted Children 6-59 Months in the ComPAS Cluster Randomized Controlled Trial.Maternal & child nutrition · 2025Trial
- Assessing WHO prioritisation criteria for children 6-59 months treated for moderate wasting in a MUAC-based protocol: a multicountry analysis in West and Central Africa.BMJ global health · 2026Observational
- Reducing relapses after acute malnutrition treatment: evidence from a simplified approach in emergency settings of Mali.Frontiers in public health · 2026Article
- Incidence and Risk Factors of Mortality Among Under Five Children with Severe Acute Malnutrition Admitted at Hoima Regional Referral Hospital in Uganda.Pediatric health, medicine and therapeutics · 2026Article
- Optimizing management of uncomplicated acute malnutrition in children in rural Niger: a 3-arm individually randomized, controlled, noninferiority trial.The American journal of clinical nutrition · 2025Article
- Weight gain among children under five with severe malnutrition in therapeutic feeding programmes: a systematic review and meta-analysis.EClinicalMedicine · 2025Article
- Re-thinking "non-response" to wasting treatment: Exploratory analysis from 14 studies.PLOS global public health · 2025Article
- Effectiveness of acute malnutrition treatment with a simplified, combined protocol in Central African Republic: An observational cohort study.Maternal & child nutrition · 2024Observational
- Mid-upper arm circumference only protocol in Pakistan: missed opportunities for children suffering from severe acute malnutrition? A mixed-methods observational study.Public health nutrition · 2024Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
13 authors at 6 institutions in 4 countries.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Introduction: Globally, access to treatment for severe and moderate acute malnutrition is very low, in part because different protocols and products are used in separate programs. New approaches, defining acute malnutrition (AM) as mid-upper arm circumference (MUAC) < 125 mm or oedema, are being investigated to compare effectiveness to current programs. Optimizing Malnutrition treatment (OptiMA) is one such strategy that treats AM with one product - ready-to-use therapeutic food, or RUTF - at reduced dosage as the child improves. Methods: This study aimed to determine whether OptiMA achieved effectiveness benchmarks established in the Nigerien National Nutrition protocol. A prospective cohort study of children in the rural Mirriah district evaluated outcomes among children 6-59 months with uncomplicated AM treated under OptiMA. In a parallel, unconnected program in one of the two trial sites, all non-malnourished children 6-23 months of age were provided small quantity lipid-based nutritional supplements (SQ-LNS). A multivariate logistic regression identified factors associated with hospitalization. Results: From July-December 2019, 1,105 children were included for analysis. Prior to treatment, 39.3% of children received SQ-LNS. Recovery, non-response, and mortality rates were 82.3%, 12.6%, and 0.7%, respectively, and the hospitalization rate was 15.1%. Children who received SQ-LNS before an episode of AM were 43% less likely to be hospitalized (ORa=0.57; 0.39-0.85, Discussion: OptiMA had acceptable recovery compared to the Nigerien reference but non-response was high. Children who received SQ-LNS before treatment under OptiMA were less likely to be hospitalized, showing potential health benefits of combining simplified treatment protocols with food-based prevention in an area with a high burden of malnutrition such as rural Niger.
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Registered trials
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.