Modeling the recurrent failure to thrive in less than two-year children: recurrent events survival analysis

ABSTRACT

This study aimed to evaluate the failure to thrive [FTT] recurrent event over time. This longitudinal study was conducted during February 2007 to July 2009. The pri-mary outcome was growth failure. The analysis was done using 1283 children who had experi-enced FTT several times, based on recurrent events analysis. Fifty-nine percent of the children had experienced the FTT at least one time and 5.3% of them had experienced it up to four times. The Prentice-Williams-Peterson [PWP] model revealed significant relationship between diarrhea [HR=1.26], respiratory infections [HR=1.25], urinary tract infections [HR=1.51], discontinuation of breast-feeding [HR=1.96], teething [HR=1.18], initiation age of complementary feeding [HR=1.11] and hazard rate of the first FTT event. Recurrence nature of the FTT is a main problem, which taking it into account increases the accuracy in analysis of FTT event process and can lead to identify different risk factors for each FTT recurrences.