Efficacy of prebiotic, probiotic and synbiotics in improving growth in children under age five years in Africa: a protocol for a systematic review.

Background: Stunting is among main obstacles to human development affecting millions of children worldwide and particularly in the sub-Saharan Africa region. Randomized clinical trials have shown positive effects of prebiotics, probiotics, and synbiotics in improving growth in children and toddlers. However, although the global mobilization to tackle its challenges in their different aspects is visible, it remains to define effective large-scale up interventions and strategies to obtain long lasting impacts.

Objective: The objective of this review is to re-evaluate the effectiveness of prebiotics, probiotics, and/or synbiotics on the growth of children in children 0 to 5 years in Africa including recently published studies.

Methods: Systematic search will be carried out in Pubmed, science direct, clinicaltrial.org, and google scholar. Both randomized and observational studies that assess the association between prebiotics, probiotics, and synbiotics, and health benefits and growth in children under 5 years of age will be included in the review. PRISMA-P (preferred reporting items for systematic review and meta-analysis protocols) has been used for this protocol, and PRISMA will be used for the systematic review. The Cochrane Risk Assessment Tool will be used to assess the quality of eligible studies. If the compiled data are appropriate and sufficient, we will perform a meta-analysis using RevMan software.

Conclusion: This review will provide up-to-date and reliable information on the effectiveness of prebiotics, probiotics, and synbiotics on the growth of children under 5 years of age especially in developing countries. PROSPERO registration number CRD42022343138.