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CompletedNCT04851327Updated Apr 7, 2022

Satiation Study With Children Attending a Tertiary Feeding Clinic

An interventional study of High Energy preload and Low energy preload in Undernutrition and Underweight, sponsored by University of Glasgow. Completed at 1 site in United Kingdom. Open to participants aged 1 Year to 7 Years. Per ClinicalTrials.gov, last updated 2022-04-07.

Sponsored by University of Glasgow · Not applicable, Interventional, and Basic science

Phase
Not applicable
Study type
Interventional
Enrollment
17
Allocation
Randomized
Ages
1 Year to 7 Years
Sex
All
01

Study summary

This is a pilot study of children attending the Glasgow feeding clinic (GFC) which looks after children with severe feeding problems who commonly have low appetite and extreme thinness. The investigators want to find out if thin children respond to food in the same way, using an established method to assess energy compensation.

Read the detailed description

Thinness occurs as a result of undereating, but it is not always clear why an individual child has not eaten enough, or how to get them to eat more. There is a need to understand the child characteristics that predispose to undereating and the how these operate, in order to design more effective treatment and prevention programmes. The Glasgow feeding clinic (GFC) looks after a range of children with severe feeding problems who commonly have low appetite and extreme thinness.

A Ghanaian student will come to Glasgow, funded by the Glasgow University /Scottish funding council Global Challenges Research fund, to learn these techniques to use in future PhD research. The student will conduct a pilot study of children attending the GFC. The student will invite 40 families to complete our standardised online questionnaire (ICFET) about their child's eating behaviour and collate existing growth measurements as well as their feeding history.

A standardised energy compensation study will then be undertaken in 20 of the thinnest children. At two visits at least a week apart, the children will be given one of two similar tasting drinks in random order, one with very few calories and another with extra, without them knowing which is which. After 30 minutes they will eat as much as they want of a standardized lunch. All foods and drinks offered will be weighed before and after, to calculate the amount of energy eaten in total after the low energy drink, compared to the high energy drink.

02

Conditions studied

  • Undernutrition
  • Underweight
03

In context

Malnutrition

1,277 studies on the registry are indexed under Malnutrition; 230 are open to participants now.

This study's enrollment of 17 is below the median of 118 across 843 interventional studies indexed under Malnutrition.

Browse Malnutrition studies →

Lead sponsor

University of Glasgow is the lead sponsor of 145 studies on the registry; 21 are open to participants now.

Counted across the registry records on this site, refreshed daily.

04

Who can participate

Ages eligible
1 Year to 7 Years
Sexes eligible
All
Accepts healthy volunteers
No

Go through the criteria one by one — yes, no or not sure — and take the list to your doctor or the study team. Kept in this browser only.

Inclusion criteria

  • Currently attending Glasgow Feeding Clinic or seen within the last 2 years.
  • Completed ICFET questionnaire and eating solid food at least weekly.
  • \< 9th centile.
  • Within 40 minutes car travel from study centre

Exclusion criteria

Exclusion Criteria:

  • Patient or family member shielding from COVID.
  • Not able to swallow safely
  • Not taking solid foods
  • Fully tube fed: i.e. receiving more than 75% of energy requirements from tube feeding.

No measurements

Terms in these criteria, in plain language(1)

Underlined terms in the criteria open these too. Explained by clinicaltrials.gg, not part of the registry record. The study team decides who can take part.

BMI (body mass index)

Weight in kilograms divided by height in metres squared. Example: 70 kg and 1.75 m gives 70 ÷ (1.75 × 1.75) ≈ 22.9.

What counts as overweight or obesity differs between countries (some use lower cut-offs), so go by the range the study states.

05

Study design

Phase
Not applicable
Primary purpose
Basic science
Allocation
Randomized
Intervention model
Crossover assignment
Masking
Double (Participant, Outcomes assessor)
Enrollment
17 participants (actual)

Study arms

  • Experimental
    High energy

    Child will be given a high energy drink: a flavoured high energy milk or juice-based drink, used clinically to supplement the diet of preschool children (either Pediasure plus or Duocal). This will provide 1.5 kcals per ml in various flavours as preferred. The amount given will supply 10% of the child's daily energy requirements per Kg - for example for a 2-year-old child weighing 15 KG this would be 80 mls of drink supplying 120 Kcal. They will be given 10 minutes to drink the preload and 30 minutes after this they will eat lunch containing a range of pre-packaged foods of known energy content suitable for their age, chosen in consultation with the parents.

    Behavioral: High Energy preload · Behavioral: Test meal

  • Experimental
    Low energy

    Child will be given a low energy drink of the same volume selected to be as similar as possible to the high energy drink, made either of skim milk or sugar free fruit juice, with a similar sugar free flavour; for above example this will supply 25 kcal. They will be given 10 minutes to drink the preload and 30 minutes after this they will eat lunch containing the same range of pre-packaged foods as above.

    Behavioral: Low energy preload · Behavioral: Test meal

Interventions

  • BehavioralHigh Energy preload

    Tests the extent to which participants reduce their intake at a meal following ingestion of a high energy preload drink

    Also known as: Satiation study

  • BehavioralLow energy preload

    Tests the amount participants eat at a meal following ingestion of a low energy preload drink

    Also known as: Satiation study

  • BehavioralTest meal

    Test meal to follow low or high energy preload

06

What researchers measure

Primary outcomes

  1. Compensation index

    The difference in energy consumed after high compared to low energy preload as percent of energy in preload

    Time frame: Calculated on day 8, after consumption of 2nd test meal

Secondary outcomes

  1. total energy consumed per study day

    The total amount of energy consumed form preload plus meal after high compared to low energy preload

    Time frame: Calculated on day 8, after consumption of 2nd test meal

07

Study locations

1 site
  • New Lister building, Royal Infirmary
    Glasgow, Scotland G31 2ER, United Kingdom
08

References and documents

Individual participant data

Plan to share: No — Data may be made available on request

No publications or documents are linked to this record.

09

Timeline

Tracking since Sep 25, 2026
ElapsedEstimatedEstimated, not yet reachedSimilar studies: half by the dot; the band is the middle halfHalf of similar studies reached it by the dot; the band is the middle half, from a quarter to three quarters

Ran from May 2021 to primary completion in Aug 2021, 3 months.

Of 392 non-industry interventional studies with no phase under Malnutrition, half reached primary completion within 21 months of starting (the median), counting those still running; a quarter within 10 and three quarters within 37. This study's 3 months is below that.

Counting every sponsor, half of 418 studies reached it within 22 months; a quarter within 11 and three quarters within 37.

How these figures are worked out, and which studies are left out of them.

Registered
Apr 12, 2021
First posted
Apr 20, 2021
StartActual
May 1, 2021
Primary completionActual
Aug 31, 2021
CompletionActual
Aug 31, 2021
Last update
Apr 7, 2022
What these dates mean
Start.
When the first participant enrolled; while estimated, when the study expects to open to recruitment.
Primary completion.
When the last participant was examined or treated to collect data for the study's main question, its primary outcome. A study that stopped early gives the date its data collection stopped.
Completion.
When the last participant's last visit took place, for every outcome, secondary ones and side effects included: the end of the study. Often later than primary completion, sometimes the same day.
Actual and Est.
Actual means the registry says the date has happened. Est. (estimated) is a date the sponsor plans or expects. It can still move, and the sponsor is expected to change it to actual once it has passed.
No changes since tracking began. The registry record was last updated on Apr 7, 2022, before this site started recording changes on Sep 25, 2026. Its history is on ClinicalTrials.gov ↗
10

Registry details

Key details

Study ID
NCT04851327
Collaborators
University of Stirling, University of Ghana
Responsible party
Charlotte Wright (Professor of Community Child Health, University of Glasgow) — Principal investigator
First posted
Apr 20, 2021
Start date
May 1, 2021
Primary completion
Aug 31, 2021
Completion
Aug 31, 2021
Last update
Apr 7, 2022

Study contacts

Charlotte M Wright, MD
principal investigator · University of Glasgow

Oversight

Data monitoring committee
No
FDA-regulated drug
No
FDA-regulated device
No
View the source record on ClinicalTrials.gov ↗

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This study is completed, as verified in Mar 2022. You cannot join it, but the record below documents what was studied.

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