Can feeding a millet-based diet improve the growth of children? A systematic review and meta-analysis

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cg.authorship.typesCGIAR single centre
cg.contributor.affiliationInternational Food Policy Research Institute
cg.contributor.donorSmart Food Endowment Fund
cg.contributor.donorIndian Council of Agricultural Research
cg.coverage.countryIndia
cg.coverage.iso3166-alpha2IN
cg.coverage.regionSouthern Asia
cg.coverage.regionAsia
cg.creator.identifierRosemary Botha: 0000-0001-8877-9431
cg.identifier.doihttps://doi.org/10.3390/nu14010225
cg.identifier.projectIFPRI - Developing Local Extension Capacity (DLEC)
cg.identifier.publicationRankC
cg.isijournalISI Journal
cg.issn2072-6643
cg.issue1
cg.journalNutrients
cg.number225
cg.reviewStatusPeer Review
cg.volume14
dc.contributor.authorAnitha, Seetha
dc.contributor.authorGivens, David Ian
dc.contributor.authorSubramaniam, Kowsalya
dc.contributor.authorUpadhyay, Shweta
dc.contributor.authorKane-Potaka, Joanna
dc.contributor.authorVogtschmidt, Yakima D.
dc.contributor.authorBotha, Rosemary
dc.date.accessioned2024-04-12T13:37:23Zen
dc.date.available2024-04-12T13:37:23Zen
dc.identifier.urihttps://hdl.handle.net/10568/141158
dc.titleCan feeding a millet-based diet improve the growth of children? A systematic review and meta-analysisen
dcterms.abstractUndernutrition, such as stunting and underweight, is a major public health concern, which requires multi-sectoral attention. Diet plays a key role in growth and should optimally supply all required nutrients to support the growth. While millets (defined broadly to include sorghum) are traditional foods, and climate smart nutritious crops, which are grown across Africa and Asia, they have not been mainstreamed like rice, wheat, and maize. Diversifying staples with millets can potentially provide more macro and micro nutrients, compared to the mainstream crops. However, there is little known scientific evidence to prove millets’ efficacy on growth. Therefore, a systematic review and meta-analysis was conducted to collate evidence of the benefits of millets in improving the growth of children. Eight eligible randomized feeding trials were included in the meta-analysis. Results from the randomized effect model showed a significant effect (p < 0.05) of millet-based diets on mean height (+28.2%) (n = 8), weight (n = 9) (+26%), mid upper arm circumference (n = 5) (+39%) and chest circumference (n = 5) (+37%) in comparison to regular rice-based diets over for the period of 3 months to 4.5 years, which was based on largely substituting rice with millets. When an enhanced and diverse diet was served, replacing rice with millet had only minimal growth improvement on chest circumference (p < 0.05). The quality assessment using GRADE shows that the evidence used for this systematic review and meta-analysis had moderate quality, based on eight scoring criteria. These results demonstrate the value of adding millet as the staple for undernourished communities. Further understanding of the efficacy of millets on growth in a wider range of diets is important to develop appropriate dietary programs and improve the nutritional status of various age groups across Africa and Asia.en
dcterms.accessRightsOpen Access
dcterms.available2022-01-05
dcterms.bibliographicCitationAnitha, Seetha; Givens, David Ian; Subramaniam, Kowsalya; Upadhyay, Shweta; Kane-Potaka, Joanna; Vogtschmidt, Yakima D.; Botha, Rosemary; et al. 2022. Can feeding a millet-based diet improve the growth of children? A systematic review and meta-analysis. Nutrients 14(1): 225. https://doi.org/10.3390/nu14010225en
dcterms.issued2022-01-13
dcterms.languageen
dcterms.licenseCC-BY-4.0
dcterms.publisherMDPI
dcterms.replaceshttps://ebrary.ifpri.org/digital/collection/p15738coll5/id/8115
dcterms.subjectinfantsen
dcterms.subjectadolescentsen
dcterms.subjectchild nutritionen
dcterms.subjectweighten
dcterms.subjecthealthen
dcterms.subjectunderweighten
dcterms.subjectnutrientsen
dcterms.subjectmilletsen
dcterms.subjectmalnutritionen
dcterms.subjectnutritionen
dcterms.subjectchildrenen
dcterms.subjectgrowthen
dcterms.subjectdieten
dcterms.subjectpublic healthen
dcterms.subjectheighten
dcterms.typeJournal Article

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