Recovery Rate and Associated Factors of Children Aged 6-59 Months with Severe Acute Malnutrition at Inpatient Unit of Galkio General Hospital, Puntland Somalia

Abstract

Background: -Around 24 million children under the age of five are suffering from severe acute malnutrition globally, including 19 million acutely malnourished children in developing countries. In Sub-Saharan Africa, it is common, affecting approximately 3% of children at any given time and is linked to the annual mortality of hundreds of thousands of children. Objective: to assess the recovery rate and associated factors of children aged 6-59 months admitted with severe acute malnutrition at Galkaio General Hospital in 2022. Method Hospital-based cross-sectional study design was conducted in the Galkio District of Puntland Somalia. Data were collected using a retrospective review of patient records and an abstracting sheet intended for this purpose was used to extract data on required variables. Data was entered into EpiData version 3.1 and then exported to SPSS version 20 for analysis. Bivariable and multivariable logistic regression models were fitted to identify factors associated with treatment outcomes. Adjusted Odds ratio with its 95% CI is reported and a P-value less than 0.05 was considered to declare the presence of a significant association. Results The recovery rate of the reviewed records was 73.2% while 26.8% were not recovered. Children who were breastfeeding at the time of admission were 43% (AOR = 0.577 (0.359-0.928)) less likely to recover than those who were not breastfeeding. Children who took Amoxicillin as routine medication were 1.8 times more likely to recover as compared to those who did not. (AOR = 1.836(1.132-2.977) Children who were completely and partially vaccinated (AOR: 3.451(1.998–5.960) were 3.4 times more likely to recover than those who had not been vaccinated. Conclusion: The overall recovery and other outcome indicators were in the range of the minimum international Sphere standard. Children who were breastfeeding at the time of admission and were administered Amoxicillin did better than their counterparts in terms of recovery