国际标准期刊号: 2161-0932
Ahmed Mohammed Ibrahim*, Faysal Abdulahi Kalif, Abdilahi Ibrahim Muse, Mohamed Omar Osman, Ahmed Tahir Ahmed, Girma Tadesse Wedajo, Abdurahman Kedir Roble, Ramadan Budul Yusuf, Muktar Arab Hussien, Dawit Zarihun Desta, Abdulahi Aden abdi
Background: More than 52 million under five children have acute malnutrition, of which 27.8 million and 13.2 million are South Asia and Sub Saharan Africa, respectively. In addition it is estimated that 25-35 million children are severely malnourished globally which is responsible for the death of more than one million. Despite numerous advances made in improving child health and the clinical management protocols for treating severe acute malnutrition at treatment centers, evidences concerning the recoveries are scarce.
Method: A hospital based retrospective cross-sectional study was conducted to collect information from 366 records of severely malnourished children who were admitted from January 2016 to December 2019. Data were coded, entered into EPI data version 3.1 and exported to SPSS version 20 for analysis. To identify associated factors, cox proportional hazard analysis was computed p-value <0.05 at 95% confidence intervals were considered as statistically significant. Survival data analyses were carried to show the survival rate. Kaplan-Meier survival analysis was computed to estimate survival function; the log rank test was used to compare survival curves.
Results: The recovery rate of the reviewed records was 79% and the overall median recovery time was 11 days. Those children with an age of 24 onths-59 months had 3 times more likely to recover compared to those children between 6 months-11 months (AHR 2.79 (95% CI: 1.32-5.92). Children who were admitted without tuberculosis infection were 58% increased of recovery compared to those who had tuberculosis as a comorbidity (AHR: 0.422 95% CI: 0.202-0.878)., similarly children who were not presented with anemia are 73% better to recover compared to those who had anemia with (AHR: 0.269; 95% CI: 0.116-0.621). Likewise children who received IV fluids during rehabilitation are 50% more likely to recover compared to those who had not received (AHR: 0.508; 95%CI; 0.322-0.802).
Conclusion: The overall recovery and other outcome indicators were in the range of the minimum international sphere standard. Mean weight gain and mean length of hospitalization were in the acceptable range of international standards.