Nutritional status of children under 6 months of age in a pediatric hospital in Peru: Prevalence and associated factors

Introduction: Malnutrition in the first months of life can be higher and more critical than possible malnutrition in later years. Despite previous documentation of this reality, nutritional evaluation is not considered as a routine and rigorous method at the time of admission, stay and discharge of the patient in public and private hospitals. Objective: To describe the prevalence and factors associated with the nutritional status of children under 6 months of age hospitalized in the medicine services of the National Institute of Child Health of Peru. Material and methods: Retrospective and cross-sectional study in children under 6 months of age hospitalized in the INSN medicine services during 2017. Those with congenital malformation, genetic disorder, HIV infection or with a diagnosis of malignant neoplasia, with ascites, anasarca, edema. A census of hospitalized patients was carried out taking as a reference the hospital discharges of the year 2017, a total sample of 284 hospitalized infants was obtained who met the inclusion criteria of the study. Results: The prevalence of acute malnutrition was 8.5%, global malnutrition 9.2% and chronic malnutrition of 8.8%, overweight of 7.7% and obesity 6.7% Conclusion: According to the multivariate analysis, an association between birth weight, age and origin with global malnutrition could be determined; hospital stay, presence of anemia and age with acute malnutrition; and birth weight, with chronic malnutrition.