Premium
Characteristics of severely malnourished under‐five children hospitalized with diarrhoea, and their policy implications
Author(s) -
Chisti Mohammod J,
Hossain Mohammad I,
Malek Mohammad A,
Faruque Abu SG,
Ahmed Tahmeed,
Salam Mohammed A
Publication year - 2007
Publication title -
acta pædiatrica
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.772
H-Index - 115
eISSN - 1651-2227
pISSN - 0803-5253
DOI - 10.1111/j.1651-2227.2007.00192.x
Subject(s) - medicine , underweight , pediatrics , measles , diarrhea , logistic regression , malnutrition , overweight , obesity , vaccination , immunology
Aim: Identify clinical and nutritional features, and complications among severely malnourished, under‐five children in an urban diarrhoeal disease facility in Bangladesh. Methods: For this case‐control design, children of both sexes, aged 0–59 months were studied. Severely (<−3 z‐score) underweight, stunted or wasted constituted cases and those with better nutritional status (z‐score ≥−3) constituted controls. Results: During 2000–2005, of the total 6881 children, 1103 (16%) were severely underweight, 705 (11%) severely stunted and 217 (3%) severely wasted. In logistic regression analysis, severely underweight children were more likely to be older than 11 months (OR 3.7, 95% CI 3.1–4.3, p < 0.001), non‐breastfed (OR 1.5, 95% CI 1.3–1.8, p < 0.001), have illiterate mothers (OR 2.6, 95% CI 2.2–3.0, p < 0.001), non‐sanitary toilet (OR 1.4, 95% CI 1.2–1.6, p < 0.001), a history of measles in preceding 6 months (OR 1.7, 95% CI 1.3–2.4, p = 0.001), dehydrating diarrhoea (OR 1.9, 95% CI 1.6–2.2, p < 0.001), abnormal findings in lung auscultation (OR 1.7, 95% CI 1.3–2.3, p < 0.001) and require hospitalization ≥48 h (OR 2.2, 95% CI 1.8–2.5, p < 0.001). Conclusion: There thus is a need to incorporate appropriate, cost‐effective and sustainable preventive strategies and improved management policies in the health systems as well as in social support systems in Bangladesh.