NCT05346549

Energy Regulation and Nutritional Status of Children: A Satiation Study

• Status: Completed
• Phase: N/A
• Study type: Interventional
• Enrollment: 41 (actual)
• Sponsor: University of Ghana · Academic / Other
• Sex: All
• Age: 12 Months – 36 Months
• Healthy volunteers: Accepted

Summary

This is study among children attending child welfare clinics in Greater Accra Region of Ghana. The investigators want to find out if moderately malnourished children regulate the food energy intake similarly to healthy children, using an established method to assess energy compensation.

Detailed description

Malnutrition originates from a complex interplay between genes and environment, manifesting in changes to hormones, metabolism, and behaviour. Energy regulation which determines food intake or avoidance plays a significant role in the cause, prevention and treatment of malnutrition. There is however limited knowledge of how energy regulation develops in children and its effect on their nutritional status in the context of undernutrition in children. A good understanding of energy regulation in children is therefore essential in designing interventions for tackling infant malnutrition. A standardised energy compensation study will be undertaken in 60 children- 20 moderately malnourished, 20 stunted and 20 healthy. At two visits at least a week apart, the children will be given one of two similar tasting drinks in random order, one with very few calories and another with extra, without them knowing which is which. After 30 minutes they will eat as much as they want of a standardized lunch. All foods and drinks offered will be weighed before and after, to calculate the amount of energy eaten in total after the low energy drink, compared to the high energy drink.

Conditions

• Underweight
• Stunting
• Healthy

Interventions

Type	Name	Description
BEHAVIORAL	High energy preload	Tests the extent to which participants reduce their food intake at a meal following ingestion of a high energy preload drink.
BEHAVIORAL	Low energy preload	Tests the amount participants eat at a meal following ingestion of a low energy preload drink

Timeline

• Start date: 2022-05-02
• Primary completion: 2023-07-31
• Completion: 2023-10-30
• First posted: 2022-04-26
• Last updated: 2024-01-31

Locations

1 site across 1 country: Ghana