Effectiveness of RUTF compared to a corn/soy-blend-based pre-mix for treating moderate malnutrition in Niger children

Nackers F, Broillet F, Oumarou D, Djibo A, Gaboulaud V, Guerin PJ, Rusch B, Grais RF, Captier V.

A study has found that RUTF resulted in a higher weight gain, a higher recovery rate, a shorter length of stay and a lower transfer rate to the Inpatient-Therapeutic Feeding Centres (I-TFC) compared to a Corn/Soy Blend (CSB) pre-mix among children located in the Zinder Region in Niger.

Moderately Malnourished children were randomly divided to either receive RUTF (Plumpy’Nut(R), 1000 kcal day(-1)) or a CSB pre-mix (1231 kcal day(-1)). There were 215 children in the RUTF group and 236 children in the CSB pre-mix group.

Recovery rate was hihger in the RUTF (79.1%) compared to the CSB (64.4%) group (p < 0.001). More transfers to the inpatient Therapeutic Feeding Centre (I-TFC) were observed in the CSB pre-mix group (19.1%) compared to the RUTF group (9.3%) (p = 0.003). Average weight gain up to discharge was 1.08 g kg(-1) day(-1) higher in the RUTF group [95% confidence interval: 0.46-1.70] and the length of stay was 2 weeks shorter in the RUTF group (p < 0.001).

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