Socio-demographic variables and underlying pathologies associated to nutritional status of hospitalized children in a secondary-tertiary level hospital.

Objective: the purpose was to evaluate the nutritional status in hospitalized children according to their socio-demographic variables, underlying pathology and based on hospital length of stay.

Methods: seven-hundred and sixty-three hospitalized patients of the Civil Hospital of Guadalajara Dr. Juan I. Menchaca were included in a cross-sectional study. The following anthropometric indices were taken: weight/length, weight/height, weight/age, length/age, height/age, head circumference/age and BMI/age. Data of socio-demographic variables and underlying pathology were also obtained. Student's t-test, Chi-squared test, ANOVA with post-hoc tests and logistic regression were used to identify the likelihood of risk of malnutrition.

Results: subjects were divided according to their hospital length of stay in lower than seven days and seven days or more. At the time of admission, children with stay of seven days or more showed a greater deficit in the height/age index (OR = 1.77 [95% CI 1.16-2.7], p = 0.007), head circumference (OR = 2.68 [95% CI 1.5-4.7], p ≤ 0.001) and BMI (OR = 2.9 [95% CI 1.9-4.4], p ≤ 0.001). Males had higher risk of moderate/severe malnutrition (OR = 1.87 [95% CI 1.22-2.85], p = 0.003) and higher deficit in head circumference (OR = 1.89 [95% CI 1.06-3.37], p = 0.029). Infants with gastrointestinal and respiratory problems had higher frequency of malnutrition at the time of admission than did those with other pathologies (p < 0.001).

Conclusion: the pathological disease at time of admission and longer hospital length of stay increased the likelihood of malnutrition in male infants and preschool-aged children. There were demographic and educational risk factors in the home environment that could influence acute and chronic malnutrition.