Official websites use. Share sensitive information only on official, secure websites. Few interventions are focused on urban slums. The literature needs a systematic assessment, as infants and children living in slums are at high risk of stunting.
Urban slums are complex environments in terms of biological, social, and political variables and the outcomes of nutritional interventions need to be assessed in relation to these variables. The review used a sensitive search strategy of electronic databases, bibliographies of articles, conference proceedings, websites, grey literature, and contact with experts and authors published from We performed the initial literature search from November to January , and conducted top up searches in March and in August We screened and then retrieved titles and abstracts as full text if potentially eligible for inclusion.
Working independently, one review author screened all titles and abstracts and extracted data on the selected population, intervention, comparison, and outcome parameters and two other authors assessed half each.
We used P less than 0. Where effect sizes were small and statistically insignificant, we concluded there was 'unclear effect'. The systematic review included 15 studies, of which 14 were randomised controlled trials RCTs. The interventions took place in recognised slums or poor urban or periurban areas. The study locations were mainly Bangladesh, India, and Peru. The participants included infants and children and pregnant women.
There were no dietary intervention studies. All the studies identified were nutrient supplementation and educational interventions. The interventions included zinc supplementation in pregnant women three studies , micronutrient or macronutrient supplementation in children eight studies , nutrition education for pregnant women two studies , and nutrition systems strengthening targeting children two studies intervention.
