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Nutrition and metabolism
Original research
Time to recovery from severe acute malnutrition and its predictors: a multicentre retrospective follow-up study in Amhara region, north-west Ethiopia
  1. Adhanom Gebreegziabher Baraki1,
  2. Temesgen Yihunie Akalu1,
  3. Haileab Fekadu Wolde1,
  4. Wubet Worku Takele2,
  5. Worku Nigussu Mamo3,
  6. Behailu Derseh4,
  7. Hanna Demelash Desyibelew5,
  8. Abel Fekadu Dadi1
  1. 1 Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, Institute of Public Health, College of Medicine and Health Sciences, University of Gondar, Gondar, Ethiopia
  2. 2 Department of Community Health Nursing, School of Nursing, College of Medicine and Health Sciences, University of Gondar, Gondar, Ethiopia
  3. 3 Nutrition, Abrhajira Primary Hospital, West Gondar Zone, Gondar, Ethiopia
  4. 4 Department of Public Health, College of Health Sciences, Debre Berhan University, Gondar, Ethiopia
  5. 5 Department of Public Health Nutrition, College of Medicine and Health Sciences, Bahirdar University, Bahir Dar, Ethiopia
  1. Correspondence to Adhanom Gebreegziabher Baraki; adsh04{at}gmail.com

Abstract

Objectives This study aimed to determine the time to recovery from severe acute malnutrition (SAM) and its predictors in selected public health institutions in Amhara Regional State, Ethiopia.

Design An institution-based retrospective follow-up study was conducted using data extracted from 1690 patient cards from September 2012 to November 2016.

Setting Selected government health institutions in the Amhara region, Ethiopia.

Participants Children treated in therapeutic feeding units for SAM were included.

Outcome measures Time to recovery from SAM.

Results One thousand and fifty children have recovered from SAM, 62.13% (95% CI 59.8% to 64.5%). The median time to recovery was 16 days (IQR=11–28). Female gender (adjusted HR (AHR)=0.81, 95% CI 0.67 to 0.98), oedematous malnutrition (AHR=0.74 95% CI 0.59 to 0.93), pneumonia (AHR=0.66, 95% CI 0.53 to 0.83), tuberculosis (AHR=0.53, 95% CI 0.36 to 0.77), HIV/AIDS (AHR=0.47, 95% CI 0.28 to 0.79), anaemia (AHR=0.73, 95% CI 0.60 to 0.89) and receiving vitamin A (AHR=1.43, 95% CI 1.12 to 1.82) were notably associated with time to recovery.

Conclusions The time to recovery in this study was acceptable but the proportion of recovery was far below the minimum standard. Special emphasis should be given to the prevention and treatment of comorbidities besides the therapeutic feeding. Supplementing vitamin A would also help to improve the recovery rate.

  • time to recovery
  • severe acute malnutrition
  • Amhara region
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/

This is an open access article distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited, appropriate credit is given, any changes made indicated, and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/.

https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2019-034583

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    Footnotes

    • Contributors AGB, TYA, HFW, WNM, WWT, BD, HDD and AFD conceived and designed the study, acquired, analysed and interpreted data, prepared the manuscript and approved the final manuscript.

    • Funding The authors have not declared a specific grant for this research from any funding agency in the public, commercial or not-for-profit sectors.

    • Competing interests None declared.

    • Patient consent for publication Not required.

    • Ethics approval Ethics approval was obtained from the ethical review committee of the College of Medicine and Health Sciences, University of Gondar, and also from the respective hospitals.

    • Provenance and peer review Not commissioned; externally peer reviewed.

    • Data availability statement Data are available upon reasonable request. Access to data upon which the results are based can be provided upon reasonable request to the corresponding author.