AUTHOR=Sánchez-Martínez Luis Javier , Charle-Cuéllar Pilar , Gado Abdoul Aziz , Dougnon Abdias Ogobara , Sanoussi Atté , Ousmane Nassirou , Lazoumar Ramatoulaye Hamidou , Toure Fanta , Vargas Antonio , Hernández Candela Lucía , López-Ejeda Noemí TITLE=Impact of a simplified treatment protocol for moderate acute malnutrition with a decentralized treatment approach in emergency settings of Niger JOURNAL=Frontiers in Nutrition VOLUME=10 YEAR=2023 URL=https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/nutrition/articles/10.3389/fnut.2023.1253545 DOI=10.3389/fnut.2023.1253545 ISSN=2296-861X ABSTRACT=Introduction

Of the 45.4 million children under five 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.

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.