Effects of unconditional cash transfers on the outcome of treatment for severe acute malnutrition (SAM): a cluster-randomised trial in the Democratic Republic of the Congo

Table 3 Cumulative recovery rate during therapeutic home treatment for SAM by study group

Nutritional recovery^a	Intervention arm	Control arm	P value
Week 6
Number^b	734	747
Number of events/child-weeks at risk	364/4000	307/3979
Incidence rate per 100 child-weeks (95% CI)	9.10 (8.17–10.00)	7.71 (6.85–8.58)
Incidence rate ratio (95% CI)^c	1.18 (0.78–1.80)	1.00 (Reference)	0.414
Unadjusted HR (95% CI)	1.21 (0.80–1.81)	1.00 (Reference)	0.372
Adjusted HR (95% CI)^d	1.20 (0.78–1.81)	1.00 (Reference)	0.184
Week 8
Number^b	734	747
Number of events/child-weeks at risk	539/4592	455/4681
Incidence rate per 100 child-weeks (95% CI)	11.74 (10.75–12.73)	9.72 (8.83–10.61)
Incidence rate ratio (95% CI)^c	1.18 (0.88–1.58)	1.00 (Reference)	0.128
Unadjusted HR (95% CI)	1.29 (0.96–1.74)	1.00 (Reference)	0.084
Adjusted HR (95% CI)^d	1.29 (1.01–1.68)	1.00 (Reference)	0.027
Week 10
Number^b	734	747
Number of events/child-weeks at risk	645/4874	587/5081
Incidence rate per 100 child-weeks (95% CI)	13.23 (12.21–14.25)	11.55 (10.62–12.49)
Incidence rate ratio (95% CI)^c	1.14 (1.01–1.27)	1.00 (Reference)	0.039
Unadjusted HR (95% CI)	1.27 (1.01–1.60)	1.00 (Reference)	0.046
Adjusted HR (95% CI)^d	1.28 (1.01–1.62)	1.00 (Reference)	0.011
Week 12
Number^b	734	747
Number of events/child-weeks at risk	707/4970	660/5260
Incidence rate per 100 child-weeks (95% CI)	14.23 (13.18–15.27)	12.54 (11.59–13.50)
Incidence rate ratio (95% CI)^c	1.15 (1.03–1.27)	1.00 (Reference)	0.020
Unadjusted HR (95% CI)	1.34 (1.09–1.66)	1.00 (Reference)	0.026
Adjusted HR (95% CI)^d	1.35 (1.10–1.69)	1.00 (Reference)	0.007

^aRecovery was defined as a WHZ ≥ −1.5 (WHO Growth Standards 2006) or MUAC ≥125 mm at two consecutive visits and absence of bilateral oedema for at least 14 days
^bNumber of children contributing to unadjusted analysis
^cComputed by using a mixed-effects Poisson regression model, with health centre as random effects
^dFrom marginal Cox proportional hazards models where the outcome variable is time until first event and time is calendar week. 95% CIs used robust estimates of the variance to account for clustering at the health centre level, and P value was performed with the robust score test. Co-variates in the adjusted model included the household size, the IDDS score and the school achievement of the mother

ISSN: 1741-7015