Table 3.

Quality assessment by anthropometric and morbidity outcomes

Stunting: Moderate outcome specific quality of evidence
Two study (three data sets)	RCT	No significant heterogeneity, fixed effect model used	None of the study suggests benefit	All studies from the developing countries		810	838	RR: 0.92 [0.81, 1.04]
Wasting: Moderate outcome specific quality of evidence
Two study (three data sets)	RCT	No significant heterogeneity, fixed effect model used	None of the study suggests benefit	All studies from the developing countries		263	234	RR: 1.13 [0.91, 1.40]
Underweight: Moderate outcome specific quality of evidence
Three studies (four data sets)	RCT	No significant heterogeneity, fixed effect model used	None of the studies suggest significant benefit	All the studies from developing countries	All studies included more than 3 micronutrients. The studies ranged in duration from 4-12 months.	671	679	RR: 0.96 [0.83, 1.10]
HAZ: Moderate outcome specific quality of evidence
Three	RCT	No significant heterogeneity, fixed effect model used	None of the studies suggest significant benefit	All studies are from Africa	All studies included more than 3 micronutrients. The studies ranged in duration from 6-12 months.	271	253	SMD: 0.04 [-0.13, 0.22]
WAZ: Moderate outcome specific quality of evidence
Three	RCT	No significant heterogeneity, fixed effect model used	None of the studies suggest significant benefit	All studies from Africa	All studies included more than 3 micronutrients. The studies ranged in duration from 6-12 months.	271	253	SMD: 0.05 [-0.12, 0.23]
WHZ: Moderate outcome specific quality of evidence
Three	RCT	No significant heterogeneity, fixed effect model used	None of the studies suggest significant benefit	All studies from Africa	All studies included more than 3 micronutrients. The studies ranged in duration from 6-12 months.	271	253	SMD: 0.04 [-0.13, 0.21]
Diarrhea: Moderate outcome specific quality of evidence
Four studies (five data sets)	RCT	No significant heterogeneity, fixed effect model used	Direction of evidence is consistent across studies	All the studies from developing countries	Number of micronutrients ranged from 5-15. Duration varied from 2-12 months. One of the studies targeted children in school.	1692	1679	RR: 1.04 [1.01, 1.06]
Recurrent Diarrhea: Moderate outcome specific quality of evidence
One	RCT	Only one study		Study was conducted in Cambodia	Study was conducted over a 12 month period	1	0	RR: 2.86 [0.12, 69.00]
URI: Moderate outcome specific quality of evidence
Two	RCT	No significant heterogeneity, fixed effect model used	None of the studies suggest benefit	All the studies from developing countries	Number of micronutrients ranged from 5-14. Duration varied from 8-12 months. One of the studies targeted children in school.	30	26	RR: 1.17 [0.71, 1.92]
Fever: Moderate outcome specific quality of evidence
One	RCT	Only one study		Study was conducted in India		41	41	RR: 1.03 [0.70, 1.51]