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Table 3 Moderate acute malnutrition: quality assessment of evidence at the category level
| Quality Assessment | Summary of Findings | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Number of studies | Design | Limitations | Consistency | Generalizability to population of interest | Events in intervention group | Events in control group | Effect size (95% CI) |
| Mortality: Moderate/high outcome specific quality | Risk Ratio | ||||||
| 4 | RCT/ cRCT | 1 high, 2 moderate/high and 1 low quality study | 1 of 3 studies shows beneficial effect, I2=0% | Children 6-60 months presenting to health centres with MAM, all in Africa | 30 | 20 | 0.92 (0.52 to 1.64) |
| Non-response rate: Moderate outcome specific quality | Risk Ratio | ||||||
| 4 | RCT/ cRCT | 1 high, 2 moderate/high and 1 low quality study | All studies show beneficial effect, I2 = 57% | Children 6-60 months presenting to health centres with MAM, all in Africa | 176 | 312 | 0.65 (0.47 to 0.90) |
| Recovery rate: Moderate/low outcome specific quality | Risk Ratio | ||||||
| 5 | RCT/ cRCT | 1 high, 2 moderate/high, 1 moderate & 1 low quality study | All studies show beneficial effect, heterogeneous (I2 = 75%) | Children 6-60 months presenting to health centres with MAM, all in Africa | 2,992 | 1,918 | 1.11 (1.04 to 1.18) |
| Rate of height gain: Moderate outcome specific quality | Mean Difference | ||||||
| 2 | RCT | 1 moderate/high, 1 low quality study | Consistent, I2 = 0% | Children 6-60 months presenting to health centres with MAM, all in Africa | N/A | N/A | -0.00 (-0.02 to 0.02) |
| Rate of MUAC gain: Moderate outcome specific quality | Mean Difference | ||||||
| 2 | RCT | 1 moderate/high, 1 low quality study | Consistent, I2 = 0% | Children 6-60 months presenting to health centres with MAM, all in Africa | N/A | N/A | 0.04 (0.01 to 0.07) |
| Rate of weight gain: Moderate/low outcome specific quality | Mean Difference | ||||||
| 3 | RCT | 1 moderate/high, 1 moderate and 1 low quality study | Heterogeneous (I2 = 84%) | Children 6-60 months presenting to feeding centers with MAM, all in Africa | N/A | N/A | 0.61 (0.24 to 0.99) |
| Weight-for-height z-score change at completion or discharge: Moderate/low outcome specific quality | Mean Difference | ||||||
| 2 | RCT | 1 high, 1 low quality study | Heterogeneous (I2 = 46%) | Children 6-60 months presenting to feeding centres with MAM, all in Africa | N/A | N/A | 0.11 (0.04 to 0.17) |
