Conclusions This systematic review found that most of the evidence associating malaria and malnutrition comes from P. falciparum endemic areas , with a significant heterogeneity in studies ’ design .
Apparently malnutrition has not a great impact on malaria morbidity , but could have a negative impact on malaria mortality and severity .
Most studies show no association between malaria and subsequent malnutrition in P. falciparum areas .
In Plasmodium vivax endemic areas , malaria was associated with malnutrition in children .
Background Multiple studies in various parts of the world have analysed the association of nutritional status on malaria using anthropometric measures , but results differ due to the heterogeneity of the study population , species of the parasite , and other factors involved in the host and parasite relationship .
The aim of this study was to perform a systematic review on the inter-relationship of nutritional status based on anthropometry and malarial infection .
The causal effect of malaria on stunting: a Mendelian randomization and matching approach.
BACKGROUND Previous studies on the association of malaria and stunted growth  delivered inconsistent results . These conflicting results may be due to different levels of confounding and to considerable difficulties in elucidating a causal relationship . R and omized experiments are impractical and previous observational studies have not fully controlled for potential confounding including nutritional deficiencies , breastfeeding habits , other infectious diseases and socioeconomic status . METHODS This study aims to estimate the causal effect between malaria episodes and stunted growth by applying a combination of Mendelian r and omization , using the sickle cell trait , and matching . We demonstrate the method on a cohort of children in the Ashanti Region , Ghana . RESULTS We found that the risk of stunting increases by 0.32 ( P-value : 0.004 , 95 % CI : 0.09 , 1.0 ) for every malaria episode . The risk estimate based on Mendelian r and omization substantially differs from the multiple regression estimate of 0.02 ( P-value : 0.02 , 95 % CI : 0.003 , 0.03 ) . In addition , based on the sensitivity analysis , our results were reasonably insensitive to unmeasured confounders . CONCLUSIONS The method applied in this study indicates a causal relationship between malaria  and stunting in young children in an area of high endemicity and demonstrates the usefulness of the sickle cell trait as an instrument for the analysis of conditions that might be causally related to malaria
Conclusions This systematic review found that most of the evidence associating malaria and malnutrition comes from P. falciparum endemic areas , with a significant heterogeneity in studies ’ design .
Apparently malnutrition has not a great impact on malaria morbidity , but could have a negative impact on malaria mortality and severity .
Most studies show no association between malaria and subsequent malnutrition in P. falciparum areas .
In Plasmodium vivax endemic areas , malaria was associated with malnutrition in children .
Background Multiple studies in various parts of the world have analysed the association of nutritional status on malaria using anthropometric measures , but results differ due to the heterogeneity of the study population , species of the parasite , and other factors involved in the host and parasite relationship .
The aim of this study was to perform a systematic review on the inter-relationship of nutritional status based on anthropometry and malarial infection .