Nutritional Outcome and Growth Monitoring in Under-Five Children of Severe Acute Malnutrition with and without Edema in Bangladesh: A Five-Year Retrospective Review of Facility-Based Inpatient Care

Abstract

Introduction: Severe acute malnutrition (SAM) is an important cause of death in children. Bangladesh has a huge burden of SAM in under-five children, but documentation of their protocolized management and outcome is not so frequent. Objective: Our aim was to identify the pattern of the nutritional outcome and growth monitoring of 0-59 months old children with severe acute malnutrition treated with identified medical complications where the presence or absence of edema is an important clinical factor. Methods: This was a facility-based retrospective observational study that was conducted in the Severe Acute Malnutrition block of Chittagong Medical College Hospital, Chittagong. Here, a total of 485 patients were admitted during the period from 2013 to 2017. Based on WHO & National guidelines, admission and discharge criteria were considered and determined. A structured and prescribed data format was prepared and data were collected from the hospital records. Daily clinical follow-ups and weight monitoring of the patients were also documented. Both descriptive and analytic analyses were executed. After Data collection, it was cleaned, edited, and stored in excel, epi-INFO, and analyzed by SPSS. P-value < 0.05 was considered to be statistically significant. Results: 54.84% of the admitted patients were cured and discharged during the study period. The mean age of the observed patients was 22.35 ± 15.8607 months. The majority of the patients came from rural areas and about 50% of them belonged to lower-middle-class families. The median weight gain of the children at SAM block during the clinical review was found to be mod-How to cite this paper: