ArticleBMC nutrition2025
Effects of productive safety net program on children's nutritional outcomes in Ethiopia: a systematic review without meta-analysis.
Article in BMC nutrition, 2025. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 4 papers, 1 of them a synthesis 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
4 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it.
- A systematic review of the impact of food and nutrition programs on child nutrition and household food security in Ethiopia.BMC nutrition · 2025Pooled it
- Determinants of stunting among under-five children in Amhara and Oromia regions, Ethiopia: the linear quantile regression analysis.BMC public health · 2025Article
- Socio-economic and rural-urban disparities in the double burden of childhood malnutrition in sub-Saharan Africa.Journal of health, population, and nutrition · 2025Article
- Impacts of Armed Conflicts on Healthcare and Nutrition Services in Ethiopia: A Narrative Review.Public health challenges · 2025Review
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
4 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundProductive Safety Net Program (PSNP) is a livelihood intervention to improve food insecurity among the poor and has been implemented in Ethiopia. However, there is inconsistent evidence on the impacts of PSNP on improving the nutritional status of vulnerable segments (children). The current review was to synthesize evidence on the effects of PSNP on the nutritional status of children in Ethiopia.
methodsA comprehensive search for Google, Google Scholar, PubMed, and other relevant repositories, coupled with a manual search (till March 15, 2024), was done using a combination of relevant key words. Hence, the search was conducted on "productive safety net," "Ethiopia," "nutritional status," and "undernutrition." An updated systematic review without meta-analysis guideline was used to select relevant literature. Data were extracted using MS Excel format by two reviewers and cross-checked. The extracted data were grouped, and summarized in narrative summaries, descriptions, and quantitative summaries whenever applicable. The risk of bias was assessed, and the Grading of Recommendations, Assessment, Development, and Evaluations (GRADE) was used to assess the strength of the evidence.
resultsA total of nine studies (n = 14,114) were included in this review, and the studies assessed the risk of undernutrition among PSNP members and non-PSNP members, in the form of pre- and post-design, survey, and cohort studies. The program has the potential to improve income, food security, dietary diversity, and reduce the occurrence of acute malnutrition, with a limited effect on stunting reduction. Moreover, food aid or cash transfer plus food aid was found to be superior compared to cash transfer mode in improving child nutrition than cash transfer alone, which could be frustrated by food inflation, subjects' knowledge and attitude about child feeding. Overall, evidence from survey studies reporting the comparative risk of undernutrition could limit the conclusiveness of the causation which could be confounded.
conclusionPSNP could improve wasting with limited evidence on stunting reduction, where the causal pathway could be frustrated by the purchasing power of cash vouchers, household income expenditure patterns, and subjects' knowledge and attitude limiting its impact. Well-designed implementation research could further help. A comprehensive review, considering more recent evidence, could help. CLINICAL
trial registrationNot applicable.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
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.