PLoS medicine
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Randomized Controlled Trial
Fortified balanced energy-protein supplementation during pregnancy and lactation and infant growth in rural Burkina Faso: A 2 × 2 factorial individually randomized controlled trial.
Optimal nutrition is crucial during the critical period of the first 1,000 days from conception to 2 years after birth. Prenatal and postnatal supplementation of mothers with multimicronutrient-fortified balanced energy-protein (BEP) supplements is a potential nutritional intervention. However, evidence on the long-term effects of BEP supplementation on child growth is inconsistent. We evaluated the efficacy of daily fortified BEP supplementation during pregnancy and lactation on infant growth in rural Burkina Faso. ⋯ This study provides evidence that the benefits obtained from prenatal BEP supplementation on size at birth are sustained during infancy in terms of linear growth. Maternal BEP supplementation during lactation may lead to a slightly better linear growth towards the second half of infancy. These findings suggest that BEP supplementation during pregnancy can contribute to the efforts to reduce the high burden of child growth faltering in low- and middle-income countries.
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Randomized Controlled Trial
Evaluation of conditional cash transfers and mHealth audio messaging in reduction of risk factors for childhood malnutrition in internally displaced persons camps in Somalia: A 2 × 2 factorial cluster-randomised controlled trial.
Cash transfer programmes are increasingly used in humanitarian contexts to help address people's needs across multiple sectors. However, their impact on the key objectives of reducing malnutrition and excess mortality remains unclear. mHealth interventions show great promise in many areas of public health, but evidence for their impact on reducing the risk factors for malnutrition is uncertain. We therefore implemented a trial to determine the impacts of 2 interventions in a protracted humanitarian context, a cash transfer conditionality and mHealth audio messages. ⋯ A carefully designed conditionality can help achieve important public health benefits in humanitarian cash transfer programmes by substantially increasing the uptake of child vaccination services and, potentially, other life-saving interventions. While mHealth audio messages increased household diet diversity, they failed to achieve any reductions in child morbidity, malnutrition, or mortality.