Cash Plus Interventions for Prevention of Acute Malnutrition in Children Under 5 and Their Mothers in Somalia

Summary

This trial studied different combinations of cash assistance to families that live in food insecure areas of Somalia and aimed to understand if this cash assistance provided reduced malnutrition of children and mothers.

Conditions

• Malnutrition, Child
• Wasting Disease
• Stunting
• Malnutrition
• Malnutrition, Mother

Interventions

OTHER

Cash only

Households received 1 mobile cash transfer per month for 6 months.

OTHER

Cash + Social Behavior Change Communication

Households received 1 mobile cash transfer per month for 6 months but mothers also received an SBCC package that included interpersonal communication (1:1 consultations for mothers), bi-monthly group sessions on key health and nutrition topics, and cooking demonstrations.

OTHER

Cash + top-up cash

Households received 1 mobile cash transfer per month for 6 months, receiving the base cash amount plus an additional cash top-up amount.

Sponsors & Collaborators

• Save the Children

  collaborator OTHER

• Elrha

  collaborator OTHER

• Ministry of Health, Somalia

  collaborator UNKNOWN

• UK Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office (FCDO)

  collaborator UNKNOWN

• Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health

  lead OTHER

Principal Investigators

• Nadia Akseer, PhD · Johns Hopkins University

• Shelley Walton, MPH, RD · Johns Hopkins University

• Said Mohamoud · Save the Children Somalia

• Adam Abdulkadir · Save the Children Somalia

• Qundeel Khattak · Save the Children International

Study Design

Allocation

RANDOMIZED

Purpose

PREVENTION

Masking

NONE

Model

PARALLEL

Eligibility

Min Age

6 Months

Sex

ALL

Healthy Volunteers

Yes

Timeline & Regulatory

Start

2023-05-17

Primary Completion

2023-12-25

Completion

2024-01-30

Countries

• United States
• Somalia

Study Locations