Terms of Reference for a Consultancy
MANGO project
“ Modelling an Alternative Nutrition protocol Generalizable to Outpatient care”
Finalizing the statistical analyses to model a new RUTF dosage table
Phase 1
Expert in Biostatistics applied to health / nutrition
Context
Action Contre la Faim – France (ACF) is engaged into the development of an Alternative dosage of RUTF to treat uncomplicated SAM children.
ACF documented a successful experience in Myanmar in 2009 of shifting from normal dosage to 1 sachet per day only for all SAM kids once they were reaching moderate malnutrition status. This success was related to enabling factors identified in the environment of the nutrition programme as well as within the programme management. An article was published in Maternal & Child Nutrition journal to relate this experience in March 2015http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/mcn.12192/full .
Data were collected from ACF missions from OTP programmes, and analyzed for response to treatment of children. Their Velocity of Weight Gain (WGV) is explored as well as other variables susceptible to modify this WGV (age, sex, country, type of admission, etc.). The value of WGV will be used to estimate energy intake covered by RUTF via a mathematical equation. A table of dosage will be established upon several assumptions, based on evidence when available. This is Phase 1 of MANGO project. It is conducted in collaboration with University of Copenhagen and CDC.
In a second stage, a randomized controlled trial will be conducted in Burkina Faso to test the effectiveness & cost-effectiveness of the proposed new dosage in terms of WGV achieved. It will measure as well through sub studies the micronutrient status of SAM children (iron, vitamin A), food intake, perceptions of the beneficiaries around SAM treatment, process evaluation of the research and body composition if certain conditions are met. This is Phase 2 of MANGO project.
Main Hypothesis
We hypothesize that it will be as effective as the current RUTF dosage table being used in programmes nowadays and that it will be more cost-effective (cost per child recovered) than the current RUTF dosage.
Short presentation of the operational research project – Phase 1
Primary Objectives
Ø To define an “optimized” RUTF dosage for uncomplicated SAM children 6-59 months old, on the basis of the established assumptions
Outputs of the operational research project
- A new RUTF dosage table will be developed
Objectives of the consultancy
To finalize the statistical analyses of ACF database and model possible RUTF dosage tables by end of Sept 2015, to contribute to a scientific article to a journal by end of December 2015
Role and Responsibilities
The consultant will be responsible for the following tasks:
1.Finalize the statistical analyses of ACF database by mid / end of Sept 2015 in English
- Comment and improve the proposed analytical plan
- Clean data, organize database for following analyses and describe all cleaning steps in a Database Logbook
- Describe all variables in a Variable dictionary
- Complete the statistical methods chapter in the corresponding Phase 1 research protocol
- Conduct Univariate and multivariate analyses as per Analytical Plan proposed
- Modelization: parameter variables based on ACF assumptions for RUTF new dosage
- Build at least 3 new dosage tables using assumptions
- Estimate for each model the % of children who would recover, the cost per child treated and nb of sachets per child, versus normal dosage, and the percentage of reduction of both, the cost per child cured
- Produce a report on the findings (including background, objectives, methods, description of the database, univariate and multivariate analyses, modelisation results, conclusions, recommendations, references, annexes such as logbook, variable dictionary, phase 1 protocole updated etc.)
- Revise the report based on comments from ACF contact person and/or ACF colleagues
2.Contribute to a scientific article in collaboration with ACF on all these findings by end of 2015
- Act as a co-author in collaboration with ACF (first and final authors)
- Contribute to response to editors’ comments if related to Statistical analyses & outputs
Outputs of the Consultant mission
At the end of the mission by end of September, 2015, the following files will be given in English to Cécile Salpéteur, Nutrition Research Project Coordinator:
- Variable dictionary of the database
- Database logbook
- Phase 1 research protocol updated
- Statistical plan updated
- Final report
- All STATA files developed in doing this
- Final database
By the end of December 2015
- Contribution to a Scientific article in collaboration with ACF
duration of contract & deadline
Part 1:
Timeframe to achieve the outputs: September 15 to 30, 2015
Proposition of 5 to 10 days of work – to be confirmed with the consultant
Part 2:
Timeframe to achieve the outputs: Dec 15, 2015
Proposition of 2 days for article contribution (initial draft), 1 day for revision if editors’ comments – to be confirmed with the consultant
location of the consultant
Work based at home, with Skype call meetings each week on the basis of exchanges by email
Contact person in ACF:
Cécile Salpéteur,
Nutrition Research Projects Coordinator
Action contre la Faim France
Skype: acfcecilesalpeteur
Tel (direct): +33 1 70 84 73 49
Contact of consultant :
XX
XX
qualifications
Consultant necessary qualifications / experience:
- Background in biostatistics, epidemiology and research
- Master’s degree, PhD, post-Doc or proven experience in biostatistics applied to research in health and/or nutrition
- Highly skilled in statistics software (advanced level) such as R, STATA, SAS etc.
- Successful experience in statistics applied to health and /or nutrition domain
- Linked with a research institute or a university in the related field, strongly desired
- Experience of conducting research in developing countries a plus
- Experience in writing methodologies, reports and scientific articles
- At ease with distance work, good communication skills
- Rigorous, organised, sense of anticipation
- Fluent in English, French a plus
- Computer literate for MS Office, skype etc.
HOW TO APPLY:
apply
If you are interested by the present offer, please send your CV and quotation proposition of daily fixed rate and numbers of days estimated for the proposed work to Mrs Cécile SALPETEUR,csalpeteur@actioncontrelafaim.org before September 14, 2015
