Abstract
BACKGROUND: Malnutrition is a multifactorial pathology in which genetic, epigenetic, cultural, environmental, socio-economic factors interact with each other. The impact that this disease has on the health of children worldwide is dramatic. Severe acute malnutrition in particular is a disease affecting nearly 20 million preschool children worldwide, most of them in Africa and South East Asia. OBJECTIVES: This work aims to investigate potential prognostic factors in the clinical evolution of acute malnutrition and potential risk factors for the development of the disease. METHODS: Our study was carried out at the "Hospital da Missão Catolica do Chiulo", in Angola, where the NGO Doctors with Africa CUAMM has been operating since 2000. In the first part of the study we analyzed the characteristics and clinical evolution of 163 patients hospitalized for acute malnutrition at the UEN (Unidade Especial de Nutrição) of the Chiulo Hospital over a period of 6 months, in order to identify potential prognostic factors of the disease. The second part of our study was carried out by administering a questionnaire to a group of caregivers of malnourished children and to a group of caregivers of non-malnourished children admitted to Pediatrics for other causes, with the aim of identifying potential risk factors for the development of malnutrition. RESULTS AND CONCLUSIONS: The analysis of prognostic factors revealed that the most relevant are the WHZ (weight for height z-score) at the time of admission, the presence of Stunting and the presence of other pathologies or clinical conditions associated with severe acute malnutrition. The analysis of risk factors has shown that not only food shortages, but also errors in the timing of the suspension of breastfeeding and the timing of the introduction of complementary foods play an important role. Equally important were some family risk factors, including the size of the family unit and the presence of deceased children. It also emerged that the lack of knowledge of what a child needs to grow up healthy often affects the development of malnutrition. It follows that a useful and low-cost tool for preventing child malnutrition would be large-scale nutrition education campaigns.