Effect of a 12-mo milk-based micronutrient-fortified drink intervention on children: a systemic analysis of placebo-controlled study dataset

Background Nutritional deficiencies have many immediate and long-term effects on physical and cognitive development outcomes, with the children not achieving their full potential. A milk-based health drink fortified with micronutrients as a part of a daily balanced diet can promote physical and cognitive growth in children by increasing macronutrients and micronutrients availability in the body. The systematic analysis aims to quantify the effect of a formulated health drink on children’s physical, clinical, and cognitive development outcomes. Methods The dataset used in the analysis was obtained from literature and consisted of 900 children between 7 to 12 years of age. These children were distributed equally into the Control group (no micronutrient-fortified health drink is given), Group I (micronutrient-fortified health drink in water), and Group II (micronutrient-fortified health drink in the toned milk). Results The analysis shows that micronutrient-fortified health drinks in water (by 2.1-fold) and toned milk (by 2.5-fold) improve the height gain velocities and anthropometric and body composition parameters. It helped children achieve healthy IAP growth percentiles compared to the control group. The analysis also shows a 1.6- and 2-fold change in the cognitive tests grades in groups I & II, respectively, compared to the control group. Conclusions The analysis indicates that two servings of 33g micronutrient-fortified health drink in water and toned milk for a year significantly improved the gain velocities of anthropometric and body composition parameters, reduced time taken to complete the physical activity task, reduced the number of anaemia and morbidity cases among groups, and improved the scoring grades in cognitive assessment test in studied children population. The IAP data benchmarking clearly indicated that a micronutrient fortified milk-protein-based powder significantly improved children’s overall growth with better health. ### Competing Interest Statement The authors have declared no competing interest. ### Funding Statement This study was funded by Zydus Wellness. ### Author Declarations I confirm all relevant ethical guidelines have been followed, and any necessary IRB and/or ethics committee approvals have been obtained. Yes The details of the IRB/oversight body that provided approval or exemption for the research described are given below: Zydus Wellness R&D team approval was received to use the data in the present. The dataset of the previously conducted studies was provided by Zydus Wellness R&D team, who own the dataset, on which the present analysis has been performed and the authors of current study does not require other administrative permission except Zydus Wellness R&D team. The data provided to us by Zydus Wellness team was in the anonymized format. The original study was performed as per accordance with the Declaration of Helsinki. All relevant guidelines and regulations under ethics approval and consent to participate section in the declaration were followed while conducting the study. An approval from the Avinashilingam University ethics Committee was obtained for the study. Meetings were conducted with parents of all participating children to inform them about the study and obtained written consent. Ethics committee meeting was held on 5th July 2006 and an approval no. HEC.2006.01 was provided for the study. I confirm that all necessary patient/participant consent has been obtained and the appropriate institutional forms have been archived, and that any patient/participant/sample identifiers included were not known to anyone (e.g., hospital staff, patients or participants themselves) outside the research group so cannot be used to identify individuals. Yes I understand that all clinical trials and any other prospective interventional studies must be registered with an ICMJE-approved registry, such as ClinicalTrials.gov. I confirm that any such study reported in the manuscript has been registered and the trial registration ID is provided (note: if posting a prospective study registered retrospectively, please provide a statement in the trial ID field explaining why the study was not registered in advance). Yes I have followed all appropriate research reporting guidelines and uploaded the relevant EQUATOR Network research reporting checklist(s) and other pertinent material as supplementary files, if applicable. Yes All data produced in the present work are contained in the manuscript.