A Retrospective Study on Child Malnutrition in the Tamale Teaching Hospital, Ghana

Introduction: Malnutrition is an essential global public health challenge affecting millions of people. The burden of malnutrition is huge especially among children in developing countries and poverty stricken regions.

Aims: This study investigated the distributions, co-morbidities, and admission outcomes among malnourished children in the paediatric ward of the Tamale Teaching Hospital, Ghana.

Study Design: A retrospective health facility based study was employed.

Place and Duration of Study: The study was conducted in the paediatric ward of the Tamale Teaching Hospital, from May to June 2015. Data extracted covered the period March 2011 to March 2015.

Methodology: Record books were manually reviewed and data on patients’ demography, nutritional status, clinical findings, co-morbid conditions, duration of admission and treatment outcomes were extracted using a structured excel template.

Results: Out of a total 969 children admitted to the ward, 440 (45.4%) were females and 529 (54.6%) were males. Majority of the patients 537 (55.4%) were within the age bracket 7-24 months, with a mean age of 21.2±0.6 months. Approximately 95.3% of the children were severely malnourished. Treatment outcome were generally successful; 534 (58.6%) recovered and were referred to the outpatient clinic for further management, while 220 (23.7%) improved and were discharged. However, the total death rate for the period was 12.8% (119/927). Regarding duration of admission, majority 434 (45.7%) spent between 1-7 days on admission followed by 8-14 days 296 (31.2%). The commonest malnutrition related co-morbidity was malaria, recording 28.1% (236), followed by respiratory tract infections 12.7% (107), gastro-intestinal tract infections 12.0% (101), and sepsis 10.0% (84).

Conclusion: The gradual increase in malnutrition cases recorded in the hospital suggests the existence of relatively high cases in the various communities within Northern Ghana. Thus scaling up community-based malnutritional interventions will be critical in ameliorating the challenges of malnutrition related admissions, particularly among children in the northern part of Ghana.