Severe Acute Malnutrition among Hospitalized Children, Aden, Yemen

Objective: Severe acute malnutrition (SAM) is one of the most common causes of morbidity and mortality among children under 5 years of age worldwide. The aim of this study was to find out the prevalence of SAM among hospitalized children at Al-Wahda teaching hospital in Aden, Yemen. Methods: This descriptive cross-sectional hospital based study was conducted on 622 hospitalized children (336 males and 286 females) below 6 years of age during 2012-2013. SAM was defined as a very low weight for height (below-3 Z scores of the median WHO growth standards). Results: SAM was diagnosed in 622 children with prevalence rate of 5.2% from total 11,941 admissions during 24 months period. A higher proportion of patients were marasmus 586 (94.2%) and only 36 (5.8%) were kwashiorkor. Marasmus was common in <1 year of age in 347 (59.2%) while kwashiorkor between 1 - 5 years in 22 (61.1%) patients. Males (54%) predominated females (46%) with a male to female ratio of 1.18:1 in SAM but with no significant difference in sex. The highest comorbidities with SAM were gastroenteritis 442 (71.1%) and 103 pneumonia (16.6%) with a total cure of 492 (79.1%) patients. Conclusion: This high prevalence of SAM among males who were <5 years of age with high risk of gastroenteritis and pneumonia added weight to the urgent need to improve the nutritional status of children.