Author(s)

Mohammed Ali Badi, Iman Ali Ba-Saddik^*

Pediatric Department, Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences, University of Aden, Aden, Yemen.

Objective: Severe acute malnutrition (SAM) is one of the most common causes of morbidity and mortality among children under 5 years of age worldwide. The aim of this study was to find out the prevalence of SAM among hospitalized children at Al-Wahda teaching hospital in Aden, Yemen. Methods: This descriptive cross-sectional hospital based study was conducted on 622 hospitalized children (336 males and 286 females) below 6 years of age during 2012-2013. SAM was defined as a very low weight for height (below-3 Z scores of the median WHO growth standards). Results: SAM was diagnosed in 622 children with prevalence rate of 5.2% from total 11,941 admissions during 24 months period. A higher proportion of patients were marasmus 586 (94.2%) and only 36 (5.8%) were kwashiorkor. Marasmus was common in <1 year of age in 347 (59.2%) while kwashiorkor between 1 - 5 years in 22 (61.1%) patients. Males (54%) predominated females (46%) with a male to female ratio of 1.18:1 in SAM but with no significant difference in sex. The highest comorbidities with SAM were gastroenteritis 442 (71.1%) and 103 pneumonia (16.6%) with a total cure of 492 (79.1%) patients. Conclusion: This high prevalence of SAM among males who were <5 years of age with high risk of gastroenteritis and pneumonia added weight to the urgent need to improve the nutritional status of children.

Severe Acute Malnutrition, Marasmus, Kwashiorkor

Badi, M. and Ba-Saddik, I. (2016) Severe Acute Malnutrition among Hospitalized Children, Aden, Yemen. Open Journal of Epidemiology, 6, 121-127. doi: 10.4236/ojepi.2016.62012.