Nutrition interventions for children aged less than 5 years following natural disasters: a systematic review protocol

Malnutrition among children is a serious public health problem in the aftermath of any natural disaster. We will review the various nutrition interventions for children aged <5 years in countries where natural disasters occurred and analyse the effect on nutrition-related outcomes.

We will conduct a systematic review on nutrition intervention studies following natural disasters that were published between January 2000 and December 2015. Study selection will follow the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) guidelines. The Cochrane Risk of Bias (RoB) tool will be used for randomised controlled trials and Risk of Bias Assessment for Non-Randomized Studies (RoBANS) will be used for non-randomised studies. The quality of evidence will be assessed using Grading of Recommendations Assessment, Development, and Evaluation (GRADE) guidelines. If sufficient data are available, we will conduct meta-analyses to establish the relationship between nutrition interventions and nutrition outcome indicators. All statistical analyses will be performed using Review Manager (Rev Man) V.5.3 for Windows. Heterogeneity of the data will be tested using the standard χ(2) test. A fixed-effect model will be used for the studies with high heterogeneity (p value>0.10, I(2)≤50%). For dichotomous and continuous data, relative risk (RR) and mean difference with 95% CI will be used respectively. Subgroup analysis will be performed for studies with low heterogeneity (p value ≤0.10). We will use Z score with the level of significance set at p value <0.05 to test the total effect. Funnel plots will be used to detect publication bias.

As primary data will not be collected, formal ethical approval will not be required. The results will be disseminated by publication in peer-reviewed journals, conference presentations and the media.

International Prospective Register for Systematic Reviews (PROSPERO) number CRD42015023243 was registered on 1 June 2015.