Study Highlights
malaria, nonmalarial, malnutrition
MALARIA, MALNOURISHED, MALNUTRITION

The greatest burdens of malnutrition and malaria overlap in sub‐Saharan Africa, but little is known about the relationships among malnutrition, malaria, and the efficacy of malaria chemoprevention.
We used parametric survival and growth models to answer whether malnutrition is associated with an increased hazard of malaria and whether malaria is associated with decreased childhood growth.
We show that malnutrition severity is associated with an increased hazard of incident malaria even when effective malaria chemoprevention is administered. Additionally, our findings indicate that each additional episode of malaria is associated with a reduced growth rate for height.
This study highlights the importance of including malnourished children in clinical trials. Stunted children have a higher risk of malaria regardless of chemoprevention regimen, suggesting that more work is needed to optimize chemoprevention regimens for this population. Future clinical trials should (1) be powered to evaluate malnutrition as a covariate and (2) incorporate evaluation of nonmalarial outcomes, including malnutrition/childhood growth.