Association between cholera treatment outcome and nutritional status in children aged 2–4 years in Nigeria

Abstract

SETTING: Cholera can aggravate or precipitate malnutrition, and children with severe acute malnutrition (SAM) have a higher incidence and longer duration of diarrhoea.

OBJECTIVE: To describe 1) characteristics of and treatment outcomes in children aged 2–4 years with cholera, 2) the case fatality rate (CFR) in all children treated, and 3) the associations between nutritional status, hydration status, treatment administered and hospital outcomes.

DESIGN: An observational cohort study of children admitted to one cholera treatment centre in Maiduguri, Nigeria, with a focus on children aged 2–4 years. CFRs were examined by cross tabulation and mean length of stay (LOS) using analysis of variance.

RESULTS: SAM was identified in 24% of children aged 2–4 years. The CFR for children aged 2–4 years was 1.4%. As the sample size was small, we did not find any association between nutritional status and death due to cholera. The proportion of children discharged within 2 days was 79%, and the longest stay was 8 days. In general, health facility LOS increased with severity of malnutrition.

CONCLUSION: Our study found that nutritional status affected the LOS, but was unable to find an association between malnutrition and fatality among children aged 2–4 years.