Effect of Ready to Use Therapeutic Food (RUTF) Supplement After an Episode of Malaria Falciparum on Weight

October 15, 2013 updated by: Saskia van der Kam, Medecins Sans Frontieres, Netherlands

The Effectiveness of Ready to Use Therapeutic Food (RUTF) in Catch up Growth in Children After an Episode of P. Falciparum Malaria

The primary objective of this study is to determine to what extent provision with RUTF will promote catch up growth in children following an acute uncomplicated episode of P. falciparum malaria.

Study Overview

Status

Completed

Conditions

Intervention / Treatment

Detailed Description

Anorexia due to infection might lead to weight loss. In many settings total recovery is problematic what might result in a permanent lower weight. A short period high quality food supplementation could improve weight gain after an infection.

Children aged 6-59 months presenting with malaria caused by P. falciparum who are provided with a RUTF supplement (Plumpynut®) of 500 kcal/day for 2 weeks will show significantly better catch up growth compared to a similar patient group not provided with RUTF (at 2 weeks and 4 weeks post-intervention).

Study Type

Interventional

Enrollment (Actual)

180

Phase

  • Not Applicable

Contacts and Locations

This section provides the contact details for those conducting the study, and information on where this study is being conducted.

Study Locations

  • Congo
    • Katanga
      • Dubie, Katanga, Congo
        • Central Hospital

Participation Criteria

Researchers look for people who fit a certain description, called eligibility criteria. Some examples of these criteria are a person's general health condition or prior treatments.

Eligibility Criteria

Ages Eligible for Study

6 months to 4 years (Child)

Accepts Healthy Volunteers

No

Genders Eligible for Study

All

Description

Inclusion Criteria:

  • Age 6 to 59 months, and
  • Positive rapid diagnostic test (Paracheck®) and
  • Thick smear showing infection with P. falciparum and
  • Informed consent from parents or guardian aged at least 18 years.

Exclusion Criteria:

  • Children who are exclusively breast fed or
  • Children who are severely malnourished (MUAC <110 mm and/or bilateral oedema, or WHO weight-for-Height criteria <3 Z-scores) or
  • Presence of general danger signs or signs of severe malaria as defined by the WHO criteria, or
  • Known history of allergy to malaria drugs, or
  • Having a sibling enrolled in the study.

Study Plan

This section provides details of the study plan, including how the study is designed and what the study is measuring.

How is the study designed?

Design Details

  • Primary Purpose: Prevention
  • Allocation: Randomized
  • Interventional Model: Parallel Assignment
  • Masking: None (Open Label)

Arms and Interventions

Participant Group / Arm
Intervention / Treatment
Experimental: RUTF
RUTF supplement (Plumpynut®) of 500 kcal/day for 2 weeks
Dietary supplement: RUTF (Plumpynut®)
Intervention group receives 500 kcal/day of RUTF for 2 weeks Control group receives no food supplement
Other Names:
  • RUTF
  • Ready to use Therapeutic Food
  • RUF
  • Lipid based food supplement
No Intervention: control
no supplement given

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure
Time Frame
weight gain
Time Frame: 14 days
14 days

Secondary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure
Time Frame
weight gain
Time Frame: 28 days
28 days

Collaborators and Investigators

This is where you will find people and organizations involved with this study.

Sponsor

Medecins Sans Frontieres, Netherlands

Investigators

  • Principal Investigator: Saskia van der Kam, Ir, nutrition expert MSF

Publications and helpful links

The person responsible for entering information about the study voluntarily provides these publications. These may be about anything related to the study.

General Publications

Study record dates

These dates track the progress of study record and summary results submissions to ClinicalTrials.gov. Study records and reported results are reviewed by the National Library of Medicine (NLM) to make sure they meet specific quality control standards before being posted on the public website.

Study Major Dates

Study Start

January 1, 2009

Primary Completion (Actual)

March 1, 2009

Study Completion (Actual)

March 1, 2009

Study Registration Dates

First Submitted

January 8, 2009

First Submitted That Met QC Criteria

January 8, 2009

First Posted (Estimate)

January 9, 2009

Study Record Updates

Last Update Posted (Estimate)

October 16, 2013

Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria

October 15, 2013

Last Verified

October 1, 2013

More Information

Terms related to this study

Keywords

Additional Relevant MeSH Terms

Other Study ID Numbers

  • MSF-nutcon01

This information was retrieved directly from the website clinicaltrials.gov without any changes. If you have any requests to change, remove or update your study details, please contact register@clinicaltrials.gov. As soon as a change is implemented on clinicaltrials.gov, this will be updated automatically on our website as well.

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