Survival status and predictors of undesirable treatment outcome of children with severe acute malnutrition admitted to Yekatit 12 hospital medical college from 2013-2016, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia: a retrospective cohort study.
Abstract Background Globally, in 2015, malnutrition contributes to 45% of all child deaths. These early child deaths are due to conditions that could be prevented or treated with access to simple and affordable interventions. Hence, this study intends to provide a quantitative summary of treatment outcomes and to identify factors associated with undesirable treatment outcomes of severe acute malnutrition (SAM) admitted to Yekatit 12 hospital from the year 2013 to 2016.Methods A retrospective cohort of 304 children aged 6-59 months old with complicated SAM admitted to Yekatit 12 teaching hospital from 2013- 2016 were studied. Data on nutritional status, socio-demographic factors and admission medical condition were extracted. Data were analyzed using SPSS version 20. Kaplan-Meier was employed to estimate the recovery rates of the children treated for SAM and Cox regression was used to control for confounding.Result From overall (n = 304) under-five children with SAM, 133 (51.4%) were males and 126 were (48.6%) females. Marasmus was the most common type of severe acute malnutrition 132(51%). The recovery, death and defaulter rate were 70.4%, 12.2% and 8.2% respectively. The main predictors of undesirable outcome were HIV antibody positive children (AHR=3.208; 95% CI: [1.045-9.846]) and sepsis (AHR= 7.677, 95% CI: [2.320-25.404])Conclusion The study revealed that the overall treatment outcomes were below the SPHERE standard recommendation and the main predictors of death in children receiving in-patient treatment for SAM were HIV and sepsis. Intervention to reduce death should focus on institutional care.