Evidence map›Paper›PMID 42100906›Full record

Trial reportJournal of global health2026

The effectiveness and cost-effectiveness of cash plus interventions to prevent acute malnutrition in Somalia: evidence from an adaptive cluster randomised control trial.

Nadia Akseer, Kemish Kenneth Alier, Samantha Grounds, Sydney Garretson, Sagal Mohamud, Qundeel Khattak, Marina Tripaldi, Fabrizio Loddo, Said Aden Mohamoud, Adan Yusuf Mahdi and 19 more

Registry-linked trialAbstract readRandomized Controlled Trial
PubMed Full text at PMC Publisher
In one paragraph

Trial report in Journal of global health, 2026. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. It is linked to trial NCT06642012 (Comparing Effectiveness and Cost-effectiveness of Cash Plus Interventions in Preventing Acute Malnutrition in Somalia), which is not on this map. Cited by 1 paper.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
1citing papers in PubMed
–field-weighted citation impact
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.

NCT06642012 nacompletednot on this map

Comparing Effectiveness and Cost-effectiveness of Cash Plus Interventions in Preventing Acute Malnutrition in Somalia

TypeinterventionalSponsorJohns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public HealthRan2023 to 2024Enrolled3,384ConditionsMalnutrition, Child, Wasting Disease, Stunting, MalnutritionArmsCash only, Cash + Social Behavior Change Communication, Cash + top-up cash
3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

1 citing paper in PubMed.

  1. Article
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

29 authors.

Nadia AkseerDepartment of International Health, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, Maryland, USA.
Kemish Kenneth AlierDepartment of International Health, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, Maryland, USA.
Samantha GroundsDepartment of International Health, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, Maryland, USA.
Sydney GarretsonDepartment of International Health, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, Maryland, USA.
Sagal MohamudDepartment of International Health, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, Maryland, USA.
Qundeel KhattakSave the Children, Save the Children International, London, UK.
Marina TripaldiSave the Children, Save the Children International, London, UK.
Fabrizio LoddoSave the Children, Save the Children International, London, UK.
Said Aden MohamoudSave the Children, Somalia Country Office, Mogadishu, Somalia.
Adan Yusuf MahdiSave the Children, Somalia Country Office, Mogadishu, Somalia.
Mohamoud Ali NurSave the Children, Somalia Country Office, Mogadishu, Somalia.
Sadiq Mohamed AbdiqadirSave the Children, Somalia Country Office, Mogadishu, Somalia.
Emily MitchellSave the Children, Save the Children International, London, UK.
Andreas KeesSave the Children, Save the Children International, London, UK.
Mohamed Billow MahatSave the Children, Somalia Country Office, Mogadishu, Somalia.
Maimun GureSave the Children, Somalia Country Office, Mogadishu, Somalia.
Dahir Isaq JibrilSave the Children, Somalia Country Office, Mogadishu, Somalia.
Dahir GediSave the Children, Somalia Country Office, Mogadishu, Somalia.
Michael Ocircan P'RajomSave the Children, Somalia Country Office, Mogadishu, Somalia.
Meftuh OmerSave the Children, Somalia Country Office, Mogadishu, Somalia.
Abdullahi FarahSave the Children, Somalia Country Office, Mogadishu, Somalia.
Mohamed Abdirashid OsmanSave the Children, Somalia Country Office, Mogadishu, Somalia.
Abdiaziz Mohamed AdanSave the Children, Somalia Country Office, Mogadishu, Somalia.
Farhan Mohamed MohamoudFederal Government of Somalia, Ministry of Health and Human Services, Mogadishu, Somalia.
Abdullahi Muse MohamoudFederal Government of Somalia, Ministry of Health and Human Services, Mogadishu, Somalia.
Abdifatah Ahmed MohamedFederal Government of Somalia, Ministry of Health and Human Services, Mogadishu, Somalia.
Abdulkadir Ali AbdiFederal Government of Somalia, Ministry of Health and Human Services, Mogadishu, Somalia.
Adam AbdulkadirSave the Children, Somalia Country Office, Mogadishu, Somalia.
Shelley WaltonDepartment of International Health, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, Maryland, USA.

Funding

No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.

6 · The paper itself

Abstract

Background: Acute malnutrition affects millions of children aged <5 years, as well as pregnant and lactating women globally, especially in humanitarian settings. Although cash plus interventions - cash or food transfers combined with complementary components - are widely implemented, evidence remains limited on which combinations and durations are most effective at preventing acute malnutrition. Methods: We conducted a three-arm cluster-randomised trial within the 'Save the Children's Cash Plus for Nutrition' programme in Somalia. Monthly support was provided as cash alone (arm 1), cash plus social and behaviour change communication (arm 2), or cash plus an additional cash top-up (arm 3). Further, we randomised 33 villages across arms, targeting approximately 1500 households. Primary outcomes included the prevalence and incidence of acute malnutrition in children aged 6-59 months and in mothers, assessed at baseline, midline (three months), and endline (six months). We also conducted market monitoring, qualitative data collection, and analysis. Results: Child acute malnutrition prevalence was approximately 15.0% in each arm at baseline. After three months, prevalence declined by 2.0 percentage points in arm 1 to 13.0% (95% confidence interval (CI) = 10.3, 16.1), representing a relative reduction of 13.3%. In arm 2, prevalence declined by 5.9 percentage points to 9.1% (95% CI = 6.8, 11.8), a relative reduction of 39.3%. In contrast, prevalence in arm 3 remained essentially unchanged, increasing to 15.1% (95% CI = 12.1, 18.6). By endline, there was little change from midline in all arms. Maternal malnutrition improved most in arm 2, but differences were not statistically significant. All arms showed improvements in dietary diversity and food security, but only arm 2 achieved sustained nutrition gains. Household livelihood conditions appeared to improve overall, though monthly expenditures nearly doubled. Arm 2 was the most effective and cost-effective. Conclusions: Adding social and behaviour change communication to cash transfers significantly improved child nutrition compared to cash alone, highlighting that integrated approaches can enhance nutritional outcomes and at minimal additional cost in humanitarian settings. Registration: ClinicalTrials.gov: NCT06642012.

Indexed as

Child Nutrition DisordersFood AssistanceMalnutritionChild, PreschoolCost-Benefit AnalysisCost-Effectiveness AnalysisFemaleHumansInfantMalePrevalenceSomalia

Identifiers

PMID42100906
PMCPMC13154337

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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.