The impact of nutritional interventions targeting infants and children in Sub-Saharan Africa: a systematic review and meta-analysis

BACKGROUND: Malnutrition among African children remains a critical public health issue, with high stunting, wasting, and underweight rates. Despite nutritional interventions, gaps persist in long-term effectiveness, scalability, and contextual adaptability. This review synthesizes evidence on the impact of nutritional interventions including both standalone nutrition education and integrated multi-component interventions targeting infants and children in Sub-Saharan Africa. METHODS: statistic, while publication bias was assessed via funnel plots and Egger's test. All analyses were performed with Comprehensive Meta-Analysis (v3.7), focusing exclusively on intention-to-treat randomized controlled trials to reduce potential bias. Furthermore, nutritional interventions promoted positive behavioral change among caregivers (pooled OR = 3.786, 95% CI: 2.395-5.986, p < 0.001). Despite these improvements, no statistically significant reductions were observed in child stunting (pooled OR = 0.936, 95% CI: 0.754-1.162, p = 0.551), wasting, or underweight. No significant publication bias was detected. CONCLUSION: Integrated nutrition and behavior change interventions improve feeding practices, but not short-term child nutrition. Programs should combine education, food security, and community engagement, tailored to local contexts. Policymakers must prioritize multi-sectoral approaches to address malnutrition's root causes effectively. Systematic review PROSPERO registration number: CRD42025642826.