The prevalence of malnutrition in children admitted to a general paediatric ward at the Chris Hani Baragwanath Academic Hospital: A cross-sectional survey

South African Journal of Child Health

John Morley Pettifor¹  Janine Brink¹  Sanjay Govind Lala¹ 

[1] Department of Paediatrics, School of Clinical Medicine, Faculty of Health Sciences, University of the Witwatersrand and Chris Hani Baragwanath Academic Hospital, Soweto, Johannesburg, South Africa

关键词: Malnutrition;    Stunting;    HIV;   

DOI  :  

学科分类：农业科学（综合）

来源: Health and Medical Publishing Group

【 摘 要 】

Background.The prevalence of malnutrition, an important contributor to childhood mortality, is poorly described in hospitalised South African (SA) children, many of whom are HIV-exposed or HIV-infected.  Objectives.To describe the prevalence of malnutrition in infants and children <14 years of age admitted to a general paediatric ward at the Chris Hani Baragwanath Academic Hospital in Soweto, SA, and to compare the nutritional status of infants <18 months of age who were HIV-unexposed, HIV-exposed but uninfected (HEU) or HIV-infected.  Methods.A cross-sectional nutritional survey was conducted on 222 admitted children. A total of 139 infants were <18 months of age. Results.Stunting was the most common form of malnutrition (40.5%), followed by underweight-for-age (33.3%) and wasting (23.4%). Of 175 children aged <5 years, 22 (12.6%) were severely wasted. Twenty-four (10.8%) children were HIV-infected: 6 children were <18 months, 3 were ≥18 months but <5 years and 15 children were ≥5 years. For children ≤18 months, HEU children ( n =56) were significantly more underweight and stunted than their HIV-unexposed peers ( n =77); weight-for-age and height-for-age medianz -scores for these groups were –1.81 v. –0.63 ( p =0.0038) and –2.51 v. –0.51 ( p =0.004), respectively.  Conclusion.Malnutrition is prevalent in hospitalised children, with stunting being the most common form. The prevalence of HIV-infection is decreasing in younger children, but HEU children, who constitute a large proportion of total hospital admissions, have high rates of malnutrition, especially stunting.

【 授权许可】

Unknown