Infectious diseases in undernutrition and risk factors for stunting among hospitalized children 6month to 12years in paediatric ward of kampala international university teaching hospital

Background: Undernutrition according to World Health Organisation is defined as the cellular disparity between the supply of nutrients and the bodies need to ensure growth and maintenance of specific functions. Most studies on undernutrition had been public facility based as we were aware of, therefore the was paucity of data with respect to this subject, therefore this study described the infectious disease amongst undernourished children and risk factors for stunting in hospitalized children on the paediatric ward of Kampala International University Teaching Hospital.
Methods: A hospital based cross-sectional descriptive and analytical study was conducted in paediatric ward of Kampala International University Teaching Hospital between January and May 2017. Structured interviews were administered to caregivers of children aged 6 month to 12 years admitted on the ward. Data collected included socio-demographic characteristics, anthropometric measurements and medical conditions that led to hospitalization. Univariate, bivariate and multivariate logistic regression analysis was done to find the risk factors for stunting.
Results: 379 caregiver-children pair were studied. Majority of the children with undernutrition in general had pneumonia 43(29.25%) and malaria 43(29.25%) in equal measures. Diarrheal illness was predominantly diagnosed in those with severe acute undernutrition oedematous 6(28.57%) and pneumonia 6(37.50%) in those with severe acute undernutrition none oedematous. Majority of children with moderate stunting had pneumonia 22(29.33%) and malaria 22(29.33%) in equal measures and predominantly malaria 14(29.79%) in those with severe stunting. Likewise those who resided in semi-permanent houses were 1.63 times more likely to be stunted than those from permanent houses (aOR 1.63, 95%CI 1.03-2.56, p=0.04).
Conclusion: Children with undernutrition hospitalized in the paediatric ward need to be thoroughly evaluated for infectious diseases. Children from semi-permanent houses need to have a more comprehensive nutritional assessment whenever they present to the hospital for care as a measure of preventing stunting.