Soya, maize, and sorghum-based ready-to-use therapeutic food with amino acid is as efficacious as the standard milk and peanut paste-based formulation for the treatment of severe acute malnutrition in children: a noninferiority individually randomized controlled efficacy clinical trial in Malawi

Year Published: 2017

Journal

Am J Clinic Nutr

Authors

Bahwere P, Akomo P, Mwale M, Murakami H, Banda C, Kathumba S, Banda C, Jere S, Sadler K, Collins S

Methods

This study compared the effectiveness of a sorghum-maize-soy ready-to-use therapeutic food (SMS-RUTF) fortified with amino acids to the peanut-RUTF (P-RUTF) in treating malnutrition. Two types of SMS were tested: one with milk (MSMS-RUTF), and one without (FSMS-RUTF).

Key Findings

Key Findings: Although SMS-RUTF was not inferior to P-RUTF in terms of recovery rate, P-RUTF groups had lowest mortality rates and had higher weight gain than both SMS groups. Peanut-RUTFs were superior in terms of weight gain in malnourished children