Effectiveness of three commonly used transition phase diets in the inpatient management of children with severe acute malnutrition: a pilot randomized controlled trial in Malawi

Table 2 Patient and disease phenotype characteristics by assigned transition phase diet^a

Characteristics	Transition phase diet
Characteristics	F 100 (n = 25)	F 75 + RUTF (n = 26)	RUTF (n = 23)	P value
Age, months	24.8 ± 10.4	23.5 ± 10.7	22.8 ± 13.9	0.84
Female, n (%)	14 (56)	13 (50)	13 (57)	0.74
Weight at admission, kg	7.4 ± 2.1	8.2 ± 2.5	6.9 ± 2.4	0.16
MUAC at admission, cm	11.5 ± 1.8	12.1 ± 1.8	11.1 ± 1.9	0.15
Length at admission, cm	75.7 ± 7.7	77.4 ± 9.4	73.8 ± 8.9	0.36
Weight-for-height Z score, SD	−3.2 ± 1.8	−2.5 ± 1.6	− 3.3 ± 1.7	0.21
Height-for-age Z score, SD	−3.4 ± 2.2	−2.8 ± 1.9	− 3.2 ± 2.3	0.50
Kwashiorkor, n (%)	16 (64)	18 (69)	15 (65)	0.92
HIV positive, n (%)	10 (40)	9 (35)	7 (30)	0.78
Diarrhea prior to admission, n (%)	16 (64)	16 (62)	17 (74)	0.63
Diarrhea day of admission, n (%)	6 (26)	11 (44)	6 (27)	0.30
Hyponatremia^b, n (%)	4 (16)	1 (4)	0 (0)	0.27
Hypernatremia^c, n (%)	2 (8)	2 (8)	2 (9)	0.27

MUAC mid- upper arm circumference, RUTF ready- to- use therapeutic food
^aValues are n (%) or means ± SDs
^bHyponatremia before transition: plasma sodium concentration < 130 millimol per liter
^cHypernatremia before transition: plasma sodium concentration > 145 millimol per liter

ISSN: 1471-2431