Nutritional Assessment and Associated Factors in Children with Congenital Heart Disease - Ethiopia

ABSTRACT Worldwide, congenital heart disease is the principal heart diseases in children and constitutes one of the major causes of infant mortality, particularly in developing countries. Infants and children with congenital heart disease exhibit a range of delays in weight gain and growth. In some instances, the delay can be relatively mild, whereas in other cases, cause the failure to thrive. OBJECTIVES To determine the nutritional status and associated factors of pediatric patients with congenital heart disease. MATERIAL AND METHODS A cross sectional analytical study was done over a period of 6months (Feb to Jul 2020). A total of 228 subjects with congenital heart disease that come to the cardiac center during the study period where included until the calculated sample size was attained. Data was collected from patient card and care givers of the children included in the study after obtaining their informed consent using data inquiry sheet. Data was then analyzed using Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) for windows version 25.0. Data is presented using tables and text form. Odds Ratio with 95% Confidence Interval (CI) was used to determine the effect of the independent variables on the outcome variable and P-value less than 0.05 was considered statistically significant. RESULTS A total of 228 children from age 3month to 17yrs with mean age of 4.7 years (SD=3.8 years) were included in the study. Most of the subjects had acyanotic heart disease accounting for 87.7%. The overall prevalence of wasting, underweight and stunting were 41.3%, 49.1% and 43% respectively. Among this children with congenital heart disease those with PAH were found more likely have wasting compared to those without PAH with an odds of 1.9 (95% CI: 1.0-3.4) and also greater chance of being stunted with an odds of 1.9 (95% CI: 1.0-3.4). children above 5years of age were 2.3 times more likely to be underweight. CONCLUSION Malnutrition is a major problem of patients with CHD. Pulmonary hypertension and older age are associated with increased risk of undernutrition.