RT Journal Article
T1 Impact of a simplified treatment protocol for moderate acute malnutrition with a decentralized treatment approach in emergency settings of Niger
A1 Sánchez-Martínez, Luis
A1 Charle-Cuéllar, Pilar
A1 Aziz Gado, Abdoul
A1 Dougnon, Abdias Ogobara
A1 Sanoussi, Atté
A1 Ousmane, Nassirou
A1 Lazoumar, Ramatoulaye Hamidou
A1 Toure, Fanta
A1 Vargas, Antonio
A1 Hernández De La Fuente, Candelaria Lucía
A1 López Ejeda, Noemí
AB Introduction: Of the 45.4 million children under 5 affected by acute malnutrition in the world, the majority (31.8 million) are affected by moderate acute malnutrition (MAM). Its treatment is particularly complex in emergency settings such as the Diffa region in Niger. This study aims to evaluate the effectiveness and coverage of a simplified treatment protocol with Community Health Workers (CHWs) as treatment providers.Methods: This study is a non-randomized controlled trial. The control group (n=181) received the standard protocol currently used in country, delivered by nursing staff only in health centres and health posts, while the intervention group (n=483) received the simplified protocol which included nursing at health centres and CHWs at health post as treatment providers.Results: The recovery rate was higher in the simplified protocol group (99.6% vs. 79.56%, p< 0.001) recording lower time to recover and higher anthropometric gain. Treatment coverage in the intervention group increased from 28.8% to 84.9% and reduced in the control group (25.3% to 13.6%). No differences were found in the recovery rate of children treated by CHWs and nursing staff. This is a provisional file, not the final typeset article. Conclusion: The outcomes using the simplified protocol exceeded humanitarian requirements and demonstrated improvements compared to the standard protocol showing that the simplified protocol could be safely provided by CHWs in an emergency context. Further research in other contexts is needed to scale up this intervention.
PB Frontiers
YR 2023
FD 2023
LK https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.14352/98052
UL https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.14352/98052
LA eng
NO Sánchez-Martínez LJ, Charle-Cuéllar P, Gado AA, Dougnon AO, Sanoussi A, Ousmane N, Lazoumar RH, Toure F, Vargas A, Hernández CL, López-Ejeda N. Impact of a simplified treatment protocol for moderate acute malnutrition with a decentralized treatment approach in emergency settings of Niger. Front Nutr. 2023 Nov 30;10:1253545.
NO Bureau for Humanitarian Assistance
NO Research for Health in Humanitarian Crises
DS Docta Complutense
RD 14 dic 2025