BACKGROUND Severe acute malnutrition is a serious public health problem, and a challenge to clinicians. Why some children with malnutrition develop oedema (kwashiorkor) is not well understood. The objective of this study was to investigate socio-demographic, dietary and clinical correlates of oedema, in children hospitalised with severe acute malnutrition. METHODS We recruited children with s...

OBJECTIVE To describe the burden, clinical characteristics and prognostic factors of severe malnutrition in children under the age of 5 years. DESIGN Retrospective study of hospital-based data systematically collected from January 2001 to December 2010. SETTING Rural Mozambican district hospital. SUBJECTS All children aged <5 years admitted with severe malnutrition. RESULTS During the 1...

This is a retrospective observational hospital-based study aimed to determine the prevalence and outcome of severe acute malnutrition in children less than five years admitted to Omdurman Paediatric Hospital during the period January 2014 to December 2014. Data was collected from patient's hospital records during the study period. Ethical approval and permission to access patients' record were ...

BACKGROUND Mid-upper arm circumference (MUAC) was recently endorsed and recommended for screening for acute malnutrition in the community. The objective of this study was to determine whether a colour-banded MUAC strap would allow minimally trained mothers to screen their own children for malnutrition, without locating the mid-point of the left upper arm by measurement, as currently recommended...

BACKGROUND Despite the widespread implementation of the World Health Organization (WHO) guidelines for the management of severe malnutrition in South Africa, poor treatment outcomes for children under 5 years are still observed in some hospitals, particularly in rural areas. OBJECTIVE To explore health care workers' perceptions about upstream and proximal factors contributing to poor treatmen...

Weight-for-height Z-score (WHZ) and mid-upper arm circumference (MUAC) are two independent anthropometric indicators for diagnosing and admitting children with severe acute malnutrition (SAM) for treatment. While severely wasted children are at high risk of mortality, MUAC and WHZ do not always identify the same population of children as having SAM. Understanding how this discrepancy relates to...