Introduction:

Child malnutrition in Mexico reaches a prevalence as high as 27.5 % in rural areas.

Objective:

To assess the effectiveness of a ready-to-use supplementary food (RUSF) to correct mild acute malnutrition and prevent moderate acute malnutrition in preschool children from rural communities.

Method:

Randomized clinical trial, with assignment to two groups: group with RUSF (RUSF-g) or group without it (non-RUSF-g); children aged from two to five years, with weight-for-height Z-scores (WHZ) between -2 and -1 and low socioeconomic status were included. All received education on nutrition, health and hygiene twice monthly; the RUSF-g children had to consume four biscuits of the supplement every day. WHZ was assessed at baseline and at four, six, and 12 months. The comparison between groups was carried out with Cox proportional hazards model.

Results:

With regard to mild acute malnutrition correction in the RUSF-g, 68.7 versus 52.1 % in the control group was observed in the intent-to-treat analysis, with a hazard ratio (HR) = 1.25; in the per-protocol analysis of first semester, a HR = 1.48 was observed, and in the second semester, HR = 1.56. One patient progressed to moderate acute malnutrition.

Conclusions:

The RUSF-g showed a significantly higher resolution of mild acute malnutrition.