Analysis of Nutrition Clinical Studies Involving Children in the Middle East and Globally

Abstract

Aim: To assess pediatric clinical nutrition research by analyzing clinical studies in the Middle East (ME) and globally. Methods: Using ClinicalTrials.gov, the numbers of clinical studies in the ME and globally were analyzed. Results: The majority of clinical nutrition trials are in North America and Europe. The ME accounts for 4% of all nutrition trials. The majority of pediatric nutrition studies in the ME are in the later phases or are observational and/or epidemiological studies with a focus on poor nutrition or nutrition disorders. Industry funding in the ME is mostly by regional or local companies; few major global companies are involved. Conclusion: The ME is not well represented in clinical nutrition studies involving children. Effort should be expended to rectify this.

Lay abstract Nutritional disorders have become an important worldwide disease burden during the last several decades. The development of effective therapies for nutritional disorders requires clinical trials in the affected populations. Our results showed that although the Middle East currently has the highest proportion of children worldwide, it is not well represented in clinical trials on nutritional studies in children. Furthermore, there is suboptimal funding from the multinational nutrition industry. This analysis indicates that there is a reasonable rationale for inclusion of the Middle East in nutritional clinical research in children, and that there is an untapped opportunity for the expansion of clinical research in this region.

Keywords::

• children
• clinical studies
• Middle East
• nutrition
• nutrition industry

Authors’ contributions

F Ozdener contributed to research design, database search and analysis, data interpretation, and writing of the manuscript. F Kirbiyik and AE Dogan contributed to the research design, data interpretation and review of the manuscript.

Financial & competing interests disclosure

This study was supported by Nutricia Advanced Medical Nutrition, Turkey. F Kirbiyik and AE Dogan are employees of Nutricia Advanced Medical Nutrition, Medical Department, Turkey. The authors have no other relevant affiliations or financial involvement with any organization or entity with a financial interest in or financial conflict with the subject matter or materials discussed in the manuscript apart from those disclosed.

No writing assistance was utilized in the production of this manuscript.

Ethical conduct of research

The authors state that they have obtained appropriate institutional review board approval or have followed the principles outlined in the Declaration of Helsinki for all human or animal experimental investigations. In addition, for investigations involving human subjects, informed consent has been obtained from the participants involved.

Additional information

Funding

This study was supported by Nutricia Advanced Medical Nutrition, Turkey. F Kirbiyik and AE Dogan are employees of Nutricia Advanced Medical Nutrition, Medical Department, Turkey. The authors have no other relevant affiliations or financial involvement with any organization or entity with a financial interest in or financial conflict with the subject matter or materials discussed in the manuscript apart from those disclosed.