Evaluation of the Nutritional Status in Institutionalized Children and its Relationship to the Development of Epilepsy.

Malnutrition as defined by the World Health Organization (WHO) in 1973 is an association of pathologic conditions caused by a lack of calories or protein intake in variable proportions. It is still one of the leading causes of infant mortality in developing countries. Risk factors for early malnutrition are absence of perinatal care and low birth weight. Epilepsy is also a very prevalent condition in childhood. A relationship between malnutrition and epilepsy has been suggested in many basic studies but it has never been proven in humans. In order to verify if malnutrition can lead to epilepsy, we reviewed anthropometric and medical files from infants in a governmental institution and tried to relate to an outcome of epilepsy. We defined malnutrition as height/weight below two pattern deviations from the NCHS tables. Two hundred and forty three children were included, 101 with malnutrition and 133 nourished. Our results indicate a predominance of malnutrition in girls (49%) and a comorbidity of malnutrition and neurological disorders. Although there were more cases of epilepsy in the malnourished group, the difference was not significant, and we could not assume that malnutrition was the cause of epilepsy in these cases because of the association of many other diseases that could also damage the central nervous system.