This paper brings together data from 4 countries, Bangladesh, Kenya, Malawi and Niger and reviews the data from four cohorts reporting on long term survival of children discharged from therapeutic feeding programmes. It demonstrates the improved long and short term survival of kids treated through the CMAM approach.

The mortality rate ratio (MRR) calculated by dividing the observed deaths after discharge from a therapeutic feeding programme, by expected deaths was used to compare survival of 1,670 children. Data showed that the survival of children who defaulted from the programmes was worse than that of those who were discharged cured. It also showed that children treated at home was better than those treated as inpatient. The study suggests that CTC should be included in the package of interventions with high potential for accelerating the progress towards reaching Millennium Developmental Goal four.