Treating high-risk moderate acute malnutrition using therapeutic food compared with nutrition counseling (Hi-MAM Study): a cluster-randomized controlled trial.

Background: There is a lack of consensus on what is the most appropriate treatment of moderate acute malnutrition (MAM).

Objectives: We aimed to determine if provision of ready-to-use-therapeutic food (RUTF) and antibiotics to "high-risk" MAM (HR-MAM) children in addition to nutritional counseling would result in higher recovery and less deterioration than nutrition counseling alone.

Methods: At the 11 intervention clinics, HR-MAM children were given RUTF and amoxicillin along with standard nutrition counseling, for 2-12 wk.

Treatment of severe acute malnutrition with oat or standard ready-to-use therapeutic food: a triple-blind, randomised controlled clinical trial.

Objective: We hypothesised that an alternative RUTF (ready-to-use therapeutic food) made with oats (oat-RUTF) would be non-inferior to standard RUTF (s-RUTF).

Design: This was a randomised, triple-blind, controlled, clinical non-inferiority trial comparing oat-RUTF to s-RUTF in rural Sierra Leone. Children aged 6-59 months with severe acute malnutrition (SAM) were randomised to oat-RUTF or s-RUTF.