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Background: Stunting and undernutrition mark the nutritional status of the sickle cell patient, but some surveys show trends to overweight in some countries. The primary objective of this study was to compare the growth of children with sickle cell, with non-sickle cell children in Gabon. Methods: It was a prospective case-control study, conducted from April to June 2016 in Libreville and Lambarene in Gabon. Cases were homozygous (SS) sickle cell children aged from 0 to 15 years; controls were normal hemoglobin-AA documented, matched by sex and age. We compared their weight, height, arm and head circumferences measured according to conventional techniques. Results: We compared 118 cases to 118 controls, mean age was 85 ± 7.2 months, and the sex ratio was 1.07. Before 59 months, there was no significant difference in the comparison of the averages of the anthropometric indices except for the z-score of the brachial perimeter for age which was smaller in the cases (-0.85 versus-0.19, P = 0.04). The risk of stunting in cases was greater (odds ratio (OR) = 6.9, 95% confidence interval (CI): 5.4-8.3), the growth retardation increased with age, correlated factors with growth retardation were male gender (relative risk (RR) = 2.04, 95% CI: 1.2-2.7), a mother with no remunerative activity (r = 0.11, P < 0.03), a number of transfusions > 3 (r = 0.2, P = 0.003), and mean hematocrit of 9.6-15.9% (r = 0.4, P < 0.004). There were no obese subjects in cases. Conclusions: Growth retardation of children suffering from sickle cell in Gabon appears and increases with age. Male gender, low socioeconomic conditions and signs of severity or non-controlled disease are correlated with this retardation.

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