Fig. 1.

Selection of the children for gut microbiota assessment. ^*Out of the stipulated age (n = 1); a tumor was found the abdomen (n = 1). †One hundred children were selected from the enrolled children (n = 327) randomly prior to the initiation of the MNP intervention as a pool to collect the stool samples from. This number was higher than the number required for the gut microbiota assessment. The priori consideration of higher number of the samples was done to buffer for the subsequent exclusion of cases in the cases of antibiotic would be taken by the children; and that they would consume MNPs at and above a specified level. ^‡Purposive selection of samples was done after the endpoint data collection for the children not taking antibiotic during MNP intervention and consuming ≥ 50 sachets of MNP for microbiota assessment. ^§Baseline samples are paired to the endpoint samples. MNP Micronutrient Powder, GMB Gut Microbiota