Severely Acutely Malnourished Children under Five of Age in Chad Setting: Cases of the Notre Dame des Apôtres Hospital in N'Djamena

Abstract

According to the World Health Organization (WHO), Malnutrition is a pathological condition which combines both the deficiency of macroelements and trace elements, with increased susceptibility to infections. This state is manifested clinically by biochemical, anthropometric or physiological analyses. Malnutrition is one of the major causes of child mortality worldwide. It remains a major public health problem. Hence the objective of this work is to determine the epidemiological-clinical profiles of Severely Acute Malnourished at Notre Dame des Apôtres Hospital (HNDA). This was a prospective, descriptive study spread over 7 months from January 1 to July 31, 2023, including all severely acutely malnourished children with medical complications admitted to the Therapeutic Nutritional Unit (UNT). The variables studied were epidemiological and clinical. Data were entered and analyzed using Word 2016, Excel 2016 and SSPS 18.0 software. 1454 children were admitted to the UNT, 1080 cases of wasting, i.e. a frequency of 74.27%, and 90 SAM with oedema children, i.e. 6.18% of cases treated at the HNDA. Boys were the most represented with a percentage of 45.04% and a M/F sex ratio of 1.15. The combination of vomiting and diarrhea is the most dominant reason for admission with a percentage of 26.96%. The results of this work show that the clinical situation of malnourished children is strongly linked to epidemiological profiles. The parents of these children are therefore required to be educated about the personnel and their children's hygiene and authorities level poverty solutions needed to improve to decrease the incidence of malnutrition.