Evaluacion nutricional de ninos y adolescentes con diagnostico de dengue / Nutritional evaluation of children and adolescents with diagnosis of dengue

ABSTRACT

The possibility of an association between nutritional status and the occurrence of complications in dengue was studied in an anthropometric nutritional assessment of 166 patients discharged from the Centro Havana Pediatric Hospital in Havana, Cuba, with clinical and serologic diagnoses of dengue. The patients resided in the city of Havana and in nearby municipalities, and presented the disease between 1 june and 10 july 1981. The study sample comprised 69 boys and 97 girls 2 to 15.9 years old. The weight and height on admission were recorded in order to calculate the index of the percentage of weight for height (per cent W/H). The cases were sorted into three classes simple dengue, dengue hemorrhagic fever, and dengue shock syndrome. The three classes were compared with the per cent W/H by the Kruskal-Wallis test. No association was found between nutritional status and the complications of dengue