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Completed

NCT Number: NCT05567016

CHILD (Child Health and Infection With Low Density) Malaria

This trial will assess the long-term health and socioeconomic impact of interventions targeting low-density malaria infection (LMI) among children in Tanzania

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Key information

Age range

6 month–10 year

Sex eligibility

All sexes

Study type

Interventional

Phase

Not applicable

Primary location

Kiwangwa and Fukayosi clinics

Bagamoyo, Tanzania

About this study

This is a 3-arm open-label randomized control trial of 600 children aged 6 months to 10 years in Tanzania, where transmission is low and a high proportion of infections are low-density. Standard of care based on passive case detection (PCD) using rapid diagnostic test (control arm) will be compared to two different approaches to detect and treat P. falciparum LMI: active case detection using molecular testing (ACDm) and PCD using molecular testing (PCDm). Aims are:

  • To assess the impact of standard PCD plus ACDm vs standard PCD on long-term child health
  • To assess the impact of PCDm vs standard PCD on long-term child health
  • To evaluate the cost-effectiveness of ACDm and PCDm

Who can participate

Healthy volunteers accepted: Yes

Only the study team can determine whether someone qualifies for participation.

Inclusion criteria

  • 6 months to 10 years of age of age at enrollment
  • Primary residence in the study area during the study period
  • Agree to come to study clinic for any illness
  • Agree to avoid medications outside the study, even herbal medication

Exclusion criteria

  • Another child from household already randomly selected for recruitment
  • Not able or does not provide informed consent
  • Need for emergency intervention
  • Known history of chronic illness requiring regular specialty care including diabetes mellitus, cancer, or Stage 3 or 4 HIV/AIDS
  • Contraindications to artemether-lumefantrine (AL) including history of allergic reaction, weight under 5 kg
  • Participation in another active/ongoing intervention trial

Treatment and study plan

Active case detection using molecular testing (ACDm)

Other

In the ACDm arm, children will receive ACD using RDT and qPCR 3x yearly with treatment using artemether-lumefantrine (AL) if RDT or qPCR positive. With fevers, participants will receive standard PCD using RDT.

Passive case detection using molecular testing (PCDm)

Other

With fevers, participants will receive PCDm, in which qPCR will be done in RDT negatives with treatment using AL if positive.

Control (standard of care)

Other

With fevers, participants will receive standard PCD using RDT with treatment using AL if positive.

Primary outcomes

  1. Incidence of all-cause sick visits

    Time frame: 24-30 months from enrollment

    Number of sick visits to health facility per person time, excluding planned admissions for medical care, elective surgery, and trauma.

Secondary outcomes

  1. Prevalence of anemia

    Time frame: 24-30 months from enrollment

    Proportion of routine Hb measurements that are low (<11 g/dL) or moderate-severe low (<8 g/dL)

  2. Prevalence of underweight status

    Time frame: 24-30 months from enrollment

    Prevalence of underweight status will be defined as the percentage of participants with low weight for age z-scores of less than -2. The World Health Organization (WHO) anthropometric indices will be utilized for standards.

  3. Prevalence of stunting

    Time frame: 24-30 months from enrollment

    Prevalence of stunting will be defined as the percentage of participants with low height for age z-scores of less than -2. The World Health Organization (WHO) anthropometric indices will be utilized for standards.

  4. Prevalence of wasting

    Time frame: 24-30 months from enrollment

    Prevalence of wasting will be defined as the percentage of participants with low weight for height z-scores of less than -2. The World Health Organization (WHO) anthropometric indices will be utilized for standards.

  5. Prevalence of malnutrition

    Time frame: 24-30 months from enrollment

    Prevalence of malnutrition will be defined as the percentage of participants with a z-score of -3 to -2 indicating moderate malnutrition or a z-score of less than -3 indicating severe malnutrition in any of the following: weight for age, height for age, or weight for height.

  6. Prevalence of vomiting following administration of study drugs

    Time frame: 24-30 months from enrollment

    Vomiting immediately or within 30minutes following administration of study drugs and measures of non-adherence.

  7. All-cause fever episodes

    Time frame: 24-30 months from enrollment

    Number of fever episodes (reported fever in the past 48hrs and/or axillary temperature of ≥37.5°C) per person time

  8. Incidence of clinical symptoms

    Time frame: 24-30 months from enrollment

    Number of days with overall symptoms reported as moderate (≥3 on a 5-point scale) per person time

  9. Incidence of clinical malaria

    Time frame: 24-30 months from enrollment

    New episodes of positive malaria test (with fever or other clinical symptoms) per person time

  10. Proportion of fever episodes with clinical failure

    Time frame: 24-30 months from enrollment

    Proportion of fever episodes that lead to clinical failure, defined as persistent or worsening symptoms assessed 7 and 28 days after initial evaluation.

  11. Prevalence of parasitemia

    Time frame: 24-30 months from enrollment

    Proportion of routine samples with parasites detected by microscopy or quantitative polymerase chain reaction (qPCR).

  12. Incidence in antibiotics prescribed

    Time frame: 24-30 months from enrollment

    Number of antibiotic regimens prescribed per person time

  13. Cognitive ability among children 0-3.4 years of age on the Global Scales of Early Development (GSED)

    Time frame: 24-30 months from enrollment

    GSED is a validated instrument that measures population-level early childhood development. The tool measures children's early skills and behaviors in four primary domains: motor, cognitive, language, and social-emotional development.Measures will be normalized within our sample to mean 0 and standard deviation 1, with higher scores indicating better test performance.

  14. Cognitive ability among children 3.5-5 years of age on the International Development and Early Learning Assessment (IDELA)

    Time frame: 24-30 months from enrollment

    The IDELA is a validated, global tool that uses direct child assessment to measure early learning and development across 4 core domains (Emergent Literacy, Emergent Numeracy, Motor, Social-emotional). Scores range from 0-100% as a percentage of correct tasks averaged across the 4 domains. Measures will be normalized within our sample to mean 0 and standard deviation 1, with higher scores indicating better test performance.

  15. Cognitive ability among children 6-12 years of age on the East Africa Neurodevelopment Assessment Tool

    Time frame: 24-30 months from enrollment

    The East African Neurodevelopment Assessment Tool is a locally adapted modification of the Kaufman Brief Intelligence Test 2nd Ed. The test assesses 3 core metrics including general intelligence, executive function, literacy skills - in addition to behavioral and emotional development. Measures will be normalized within our sample to mean 0 and standard deviation 1, with higher scores indicating better test performance.

  16. Sustained attention among children 5-8 years of age on the Pencil Tapping Test

    Time frame: 24-30 months from enrollment

    The pencil tapping test is one of the tasks in the Preschool Self-Regulation Assessment (PSRA) and is used to assess inhibitory control in younger children. The child and an assessor have pencils, and child is instructed to tap one/two times(s) depending on what assessor does, with the number of correct responses scored. Measures will be normalized within our sample to mean 0 and standard deviation 1, with higher scores indicating better test performance.

  17. Sustained attention among children 9-12 years of age on the Code Transmission Test, a local adaptation of the Test of Everyday Attention for Children(TEA-Ch)

    Time frame: 24-30 months from enrollment

    Code transmission test is a sub-test of Test of Everyday Attention for Children (TEA-Ch) used for assessment of sustained attention in children. In the test, the child must remember spoken digits, and remember the digit that comes before sequence of numbers. Child is scored on completed and correct answers. Measures will be normalized within our sample to mean 0 and standard deviation 1, with higher scores indicating better test performance.

  18. Incidence of school absenteeism

    Time frame: 24-30 months from enrollment

    The number of days of school absenteeism for any reason including illness.

  19. School performance

    Time frame: 24-30 months from enrollment

    School performance will be defined as the incidence of school advancement to the next grade.

  20. Socioeconomic costs to participant

    Time frame: 24-30 months from enrollment

    Estimated long-term income loss due to impaired early childhood development

  21. Socioeconomic costs to family

    Time frame: 24-30 months from enrollment

    Total caregiver-reported costs of sick visits and transport to sick visits plus estimated loss of income from number of days of caregiver work absenteeism.

  22. Socioeconomic costs to health system

    Time frame: 24-30 months from enrollment

    Estimated costs of testing and treatment for caregiver-reported number of sick visits.

  23. Cost effectiveness

    Time frame: 24-30 months from enrollment

    Cost per outcome averted (e.g., per sick visit averted, per disability adjusted life years (DALYs), and per economic dollar saved, etc.)

  24. Prevalence of systemic inflammation

    Time frame: 24-30 months from enrollment

    Proportion of sick visits with elevated elevated C-reactive pep-tide (CRP)

  25. Proportion with antimalarial antibodies against P.falciparum

    Time frame: 24-30 months from enrollment

    Percentage of patients with antimalarial antibodies

  26. Proportion with biomarkers of inflammation

    Time frame: 24-30 months from enrollment

    Percentage of patients with elevated cytokines

  27. Proportion with general antibody responses to vaccines

    Time frame: 24-30 months from enrollment

    Percentage of patients with vaccine antibodies

  28. Proportion with general antibody responses to common pathogens

    Time frame: 24-30 months from enrollment

    Percentage of patients with common pathogen antibodies

  29. Incidence of adverse events (AEs)

    Time frame: 24-30 months from enrollment

    Number of AEs per person time. AEs will be considered as any grade 3-4 AE or serious adverse event (SAE); individual AEs; or AEs related to study drugs.

  30. Incidence of wasting

    Time frame: 24-30 months from enrollment

    Incidence proportion of wasting will be defined for each age range of measurement. It is defined as the proportion of children not wasted at the start of the period who became wasted during the age period (the proportion of children who had the onset of new episodes during the period). Incident wasting episodes are defined as a change in weight-for-length z-scores from above -2 Z in the prior measurement to below -2 Z in the current measurement. We will define incident severe wasting analogously using a -3 Z cutoff. We will assume a 60-day washout period before a new wasting episode could occur.

  31. Incidence of stunting

    Time frame: 24-30 months from enrollment

    Incidence proportion of stunting will be defined for each age range of measurement. It is defined as the proportion of children not stunted at the start of the period who became stunted during the age period. Incident stunting episodes will be defined as a change in length-for-age z-scores from above -2 Z in the prior measurement to below -2 Z in the current measurement. We will define incident severe stunting analogously using a -3 Z cutoff.

Sponsors and collaborators

Lead sponsor

University of California, San Francisco

Other

Collaborators

  • Chan Zuckerberg Biohub
  • Ifakara Health Institute
  • National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID)
  • Stanford University
  • Swiss Tropical & Public Health Institute

Registry information

Official study title

Child Health and Infection With Low Density (CHILD) Malaria, a Randomized Controlled Trial to Assess the Long-term Health and Socioeconomic Impact of Interventions Targeting Low-density Malaria Infection (LMI) Among Children in Tanzania

Important dates

Study start
2023
Primary completion
2025
Study completion
2025
First posted
Oct 5, 2022
Registry last updated
Jan 29, 2026

OpenTrials presents study information sourced from ClinicalTrials.gov. The official registry record should be consulted for the latest information.

View the official ClinicalTrials.gov record (opens in a new tab)

This listing is for discovery and informational purposes only. It is not medical advice, does not guarantee that a study is recruiting, and does not determine eligibility. Contact the study team and a qualified healthcare professional when considering participation.

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