Evidence map›Paper›PMID 41125609›Full record

SynthesisScientific reports2025

Quantifying child growth effects using height-age instead of height-for-age z-scores in a meta-analysis of small-quantity lipid-based nutrient supplement trials.

Kelly M Watson, Alison S B Dasiewicz, Diego G Bassani, Chun-Yuan Chen, Huma Qamar, Daniel E Roth

Abstract readMeta-Analysis
PubMed Full text at PMC Publisher
In one paragraph

Synthesis in Scientific reports, 2025. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 1 paper, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
1citing papers in PubMed, 1 pooled it
–field-weighted citation impact
1 · What the graph read from it

What it found

Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.

The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.

2 · The registry

The trial behind it

Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.

Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.

3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

1 citing paper in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it.

  1. Pooled it
4 · The record

Corrections and comments

PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

6 authors.

Kelly M WatsonCentre for Global Child Health, The Hospital for Sick Children, 686 Bay St, Toronto, ON, M5G 0A4, Canada.
Alison S B DasiewiczCentre for Global Child Health, The Hospital for Sick Children, 686 Bay St, Toronto, ON, M5G 0A4, Canada.
Diego G BassaniCentre for Global Child Health, The Hospital for Sick Children, 686 Bay St, Toronto, ON, M5G 0A4, Canada.
Chun-Yuan ChenCentre for Global Child Health, The Hospital for Sick Children, 686 Bay St, Toronto, ON, M5G 0A4, Canada.
Huma QamarCentre for Global Child Health, The Hospital for Sick Children, 686 Bay St, Toronto, ON, M5G 0A4, Canada.
Daniel E RothCentre for Global Child Health, The Hospital for Sick Children, 686 Bay St, Toronto, ON, M5G 0A4, Canada. daniel.roth@sickkids.ca.

Funding

CIHR 169133
6 · The paper itself

Abstract

Height-age is the age at which growth-faltered children's average observed height or length equals the median height or length of a child growth standard, corresponding to a length-for-age z-score (LAZ) of 0. In randomized controlled trials (RCTs) in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs), expression of linear growth outcomes using height-age may enhance the interpretability of intervention effects compared to conventional use of LAZ. Height-age can be used to derive the proportion of maximal benefit (PMB), whereby PMB = 0% indicates no effect and PMB = 100% indicates the intervention promoted growth at the rate expected for healthy children with the same starting height-age. In this proof-of-concept study, height-age and PMB were compared to LAZ in a meta-analysis of RCTs of small-quantity lipid-based nutrient supplements (SQ-LNS). Pooling across 15 trials in 10 LMICs, mean differences (MD; SQ-LNS minus control) in LAZ and height-age were 0.15 (95%CI: 0.12, 0.17) and 12 days (95%CI: 9, 14), respectively (N = 36,970). LAZ MD and height-age MD were highly correlated (rho = 0.74 overall and 0.94 upon exclusion of an outlier). The pooled PMB indicated that SQ-LNS achieves 11% of optimal growth potential (95% CI: [9.4, 12]; N = 19,768; 12 comparisons), but there was a substantial impact of between-trial heterogeneity (I

Indexed as

Body HeightChild DevelopmentDietary SupplementsLipidsChildChild, PreschoolFemaleHumansInfantMaleRandomized Controlled Trials as TopicLipidsChild growthHeight-ageHeight-for-age z-scoresLength-for-age z-scoresLow- and middle-income countriesRandomized controlled trialsSmall-quantity lipid-based nutrient supplements

Identifiers

PMID41125609
PMCPMC12546833

What Socratic holds

Textmetadata
LicenceCC BY
Read underepoch 390

Registered trials

None linked

Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the Socratic graph.