ABSTRACT
BACKGROUND: Malnutrition has various adverse effects in children. This study aimed to determine risk factors for malnutrition among hospitalised children, changes in nutritional status at admission and discharge and effects of use of systematic anthropometric measurement in identification of malnutrition. METHODS: We enrolled 426 children, aged between 6 months and 15 years, admitted to Siddhi Memorial Hospital, Bhaktapur, Nepal, from November 2016 to June 2017. Anthropometric measurements were performed at the time of admission and discharge. Risk factors were assessed by multivariable logistic regression models. RESULTS: Median age of children was 26 months (IQR: 13-49), and males were 58.7%. The prevalence of wasting was 9.2% (39/426) at admission and 8.5% (36/426) at discharge. Risk factors associated with wasting at admission were ethnic minority (aOR: 3.6, 95% CI 1.2-10.8), diarrhoeal diseases (aOR = 4.0; 95% CI 1.3-11.8), respiratory diseases (aOR: 3.4, 95% CI 1.4-8.1) and earthquake damage to house (aOR = 2.6; 95% CI 1.1-6.3). Clinical observation by care providers identified only 2 out of 112 malnutrition cases at admission and 4 out of 119 cases at discharge that were detected by the systematic anthropometric measurement. CONCLUSIONS: Ethnic minority, diarrhoeal diseases, respiratory infections and house damage due to the earthquake were risk factors associated with wasting. Systematic anthropometric examination can identify significantly more malnourished children than simple observation of care providers.
ABSTRACT
Severe acute malnutrition may lead both concurrently and subsequently to malabsorption and impaired glucose metabolism from pancreatic dysfunction. We conducted a systematic review to investigate the associations of current and prior postnatal wasting malnutrition with pancreatic endocrine and exocrine functions in humans. We searched PubMed, Google Scholar, Web of Science and reference lists of retrieved articles, limited to articles in English published before 1 February 2022. We included sixty-eight articles, mostly cross-sectional or cohort studies from twenty-nine countries including 592 530 participants, of which 325 998 were from a single study. Many were small clinical studies from decades ago and rated poor quality. Exocrine pancreas function, indicated by duodenal fluid or serum enzymes, or faecal elastase, was generally impaired in malnutrition. Insulin production was usually low in malnourished children and adults. Glucose disappearance during oral and intravenous glucose tolerance tests was variable. Upon treatment of malnutrition, most abnormalities improved but frequently not to control levels. Famine survivors studied decades later showed ongoing impaired glucose tolerance with some evidence of sex differences. The similar findings from anorexia nervosa, famine survivors and poverty- or infection-associated malnutrition in low- and middle-income countries (LMIC) lend credence to results being due to malnutrition itself. Research using large, well-documented cohorts and considering sexes separately, is needed to improve prevention and treatment of exocrine and endocrine pancreas abnormalities in LMIC with a high burden of malnutrition and diabetes.
