Abstract

PALLY CALLISAYA, Esther  and  MEJIA SALAS, Hector. Risk factors for acute malnutrition in children less than five years of age. Rev. bol. ped. [online]. 2012, vol.51, n.2, pp.90-96. ISSN 1024-0675.

Objective: to identify risk factor for acute and severe malnutrition in children less than 5 years of age admitted to 3 different hospitals. Design: case and control study Place: Hospital del Niño "Dr. Ovidio Aliaga Uría" (La Paz); Hospital de Niños "Mario Ortiz Suarez" (Santa Cruz), Servicio de Pediatría del Hospital General "San Juan de Dios" (Oruro). Methods: from august 1 to December 31, of 144 children under five years of age, 48 were severe malnourished and 96 normal with other conditions served as controls. The statistic results were analyzed by SPSS (IBM) and EPI-INFO. Results: the most frequent risk factors found in the study were: children 12-23 months of age (OR 6, 73); Maternal age 18 years or less (OR 3,95); working mother (OR 2,21); siblings under 5 years living with the family (OR 2,6). Conclusions: for malnutrition development many risk factors involving inherent to the patient, the mother and the environment.

Keywords : malnutrition; risk factors.

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