Health and welfare effects of integrating AIDS treatment with food assistance in resource constrained settings: a systematic review of theory and evidence.

The article systematically reviews theory and existing empirical evidence on the health and welfare effects of integrating AIDS treatment with food assistance. While theoretical predictions point to possible improvements in health, consumption and ambiguous effects on labor supply, there are few empirical studies that used robust designs. Five empirical studies are reviewed and in two of them, food assistance improves nutritional status, especially when provided in the form of ready to use therapeutic feeding.