Conducted for the Department of Nutrition and Food Safety, World Health Organization.
A team led by Dr Noreen Dadirai Mdege conducted a systematic review of costs and resource use associated with the management of children under the age of 5 years with moderate or severe child wasting, and infants under the age of 6 months with growth faltering/failure, focusing on the treatment decisions listed below:
• Initiation of treatment in an outpatient/community setting
• Referral to treatment in an inpatient setting
• Transfer to outpatient/community treatment
• Discharge from outpatient/community treatment (e.g., duration of stay, timing of discharge)
The review answered the following questions: How large are the resource requirements related to treatment decisions (costs)? What is the certainty of this evidence of resource requirements (costs)? Does the cost-effectiveness favour the intervention or the comparison?
The findings from the systematic review informed the updated WHO guidance on the prevention and management of wasting and nutritional oedema (acute malnutrition) in infants and children under 5 years published in 2023.
2021: Sustainability assessment of the Lilongwe University of Agriculture and Natural Resources Postgraduate Diploma and Masters in Dietetics Program (2021).
Conducted for the Kamuzu University of Health Sciences.
A team led by Dr Noreen Dadirai Mdege evaluated various program capacity factors for the sustainability of the program and made recommendations to aid any gaps in achieving sustainability. The capacity factors evaluated included political support, costs and funding stability, partnerships, organisational capacity and preparedness of institutions to adopt and/or scale up the program, program evaluation, program adaptation, communications and strategic planning. The team also assessed the program’s impact on academia, public health delivery and other measurable impact pathways.