Can Feeding a Millet-Based Diet Improve the Growth of Children?—A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis

Anitha, S and Givens, D I and Subramaniam, K and Upadhyay, S and Kane-Potaka, J and Vogtschmidt, Y D and Botha, R and Tsusaka, T W and Nedumaran, S and Rajkumar, H and Rajendran, A and Parasannanavar, D J and Vetriventhan, M and Bhandari, R K (2022) Can Feeding a Millet-Based Diet Improve the Growth of Children?—A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis. Nutrients (TSI), 14 (1). pp. 1-16. ISSN 2072-6643

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Abstract

Undernutrition, 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.

Item Type:	Article
Divisions:	Genebank Global Research Program - Enabling Systems Transformation Strategic Marketing and Communication
CRP:	UNSPECIFIED
Uncontrolled Keywords:	height, weight, infant growth, adolescent growth, millets
Subjects:	Mandate crops > Millets Others > Food and Nutrition
Depositing User:	Mr Nagaraju T
Date Deposited:	11 Sep 2024 05:20
Last Modified:	11 Sep 2024 05:24
URI:	http://oar.icrisat.org/id/eprint/12809
Official URL:	https://www.mdpi.com/2072-6643/14/1/225
Projects:	ICAR-ICRISAT project
Funders:	Government of India, Smart Food endowment fund
Acknowledgement:	The support rendered in data collection by the staff and library of the Avinashilingam University for Women, Coimbatore, is gratefully acknowledged. The authors acknowledge Smitha Sitaraman, ICRISAT, for editing the manuscript.
Links:	Google Scholar

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