Project Details

Mothers Applying MUAC screening for Acute Malnutrition (MAMAN) Trial

Catherine Oldenburg, ScD, MPH

Summary

BACKGROUND: Interventions for severe acute malnutrition (SAM) typically focus on the acute phase of recovery in the weeks and months following admission to a nutritional program. However, recent evidence has demonstrated that relapse to SAM is a common outcome for children who have previously recovered, and that children who relapse have worse outcomes compared to those with new-onset SAM. GAP: The results of this study will provide evidence of the effectiveness of caregiver screening for post-recovery detection of relapse among children recovered from an episode of SAM. It will provide critical evidence of a scalable and easily implementable intervention for relapse, an understudied condition. HYPOTHESIS: We hypothesize that caregiver screening will be effective for reducing time to detection of relapse and that children receiving caregiver screening will have better anthropometric measures at 12 months and faster time to detection of relapse among those who relapse. METHODS: This study is a randomized controlled trial enrolling children aged 6-59 months who have recently recovered from an episode of SAM. Eligible children and their caregivers are randomized to one of 3 study arms: 1) caregiver screening with a MUAC tape and the usual follow-up schedule (monthly), 2) caregiver screening with a MUAC tape with a reduced follow-up schedule (at 3 months), or 3) standard of care (monthly clinic-based follow-up for 3 months post-recovery). RESULTS: Pending. IMPACT: We anticipate the results of this study will provide definitive evidence of the effectiveness of training caregivers to screen for relapse after recovery from SAM. As MUAC tapes are inexpensive and easy to use, we anticipate this intervention could be rapidly scaled up if found to be effective.