Crossover trial to test the acceptability of a locally produced lipid-based nutrient supplement (LNS) for children under 2 years in Cambodia: a study protocol

Introduction The acceptability and efficacy of existing ready-to-use supplementary and therapeutic foods has been low in Cambodia, thus limiting success in preventing and treating malnutrition among Cambodian children. In that context, UNICEF and IRD have developed a locally produced, multiple micronutrient fortified lipid-based nutrient supplement. This food is innovative, in that it uses fish instead of milk as the animal source food. Very few supplementary foods have non-milk animal source foods, and in addition they have not been widely tested. This trial will assess the novel food's acceptability to children and caregivers. Methods and analysis This is a cluster-randomised, incomplete block, 4x4 crossover design with no blinding. It will take place in four sites in a community setting in periurban Phnom Penh. Healthy children aged 9-23 months (n=100) will eat each of four foods for 3 days at a time. The amount they consume will be measured, and at the end of each 3-day set, caregivers will assess how well their child liked the food. After 12 days, caregivers themselves will do a sensory test of the 4 foods and will rank them in terms of preference. Ethics and dissemination Ethical clearance was received from the University of Queensland Medical Research Ethics Committee (2014001070) and from Cambodia's National Ethics Committee for Health Research (03/8 NECHR). Registration ClinicalTrials.gov, identifier: LNS-CAMB-INFANTS; NCT02257437. Pre-results.