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Maternal and Child Health

Malnutrition During Pregnancy in Malawi Study 

This study is comparing the effectiveness of 3 supplementary foods in moderately malnourished pregnant Malawian women.  Subjects will receive one of 3 food treatments: 1) a ready-to-use dairy and peanut based supplementary food which delivers about 200% of the RDA of most micronutrients in pregnancy (RUSF), 2)  fortified corn soy blend with a multiple micronutrient tablet which delivers about 200% of the RDA of most micronutrients (CSB+UNI) or 3), the standard of care which is a fortified corn soy blend flour with supplementary iron and folic acid (CSB+fefo), delivering between 0-350% of the RDA.  The primary outcomes will be malnutrition recovery rate, birth weight and birth length.  Micronutrient status, body composition and mental changes are being measured in substudies.  It is hoped that this study will show the benefits of treating moderate malnutrition in pregnancy so that international agencies and national nutrition programs can make the most appropriate choices as they strive to reach the Millennium Development Goals.  This study is in collaboration with Washington University, St Louis and Project Peanut Butter and is funded by USAID, California Agriculture Research Initiative, US Dairy Export Council, Dairy Research Initiative and Feed the Future grants.  

Principal Investigator: Peggy Papathakis, ppapatha@calpoly.edu, 805-756-7205

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