Nutritional recovery after discharge in hospitalized children with malnutrition

OBJECTIVE To investigate the nutritional recovery status of children with moderate or severe malnutrition during hospitalization after discharge. METHODS The children with moderate or severe malnutrition were given nutrition support during hospitalization. They received a regular follow-up and nutrition guidance after discharge. The weight-for-age and height-for-age Z-scores reaching above -2 SD were considered the nutrition criterion for ending follow-up. RESULTS Among the 298 children with moderate or severe malnutrition, 174 (58.4%) reached the criterion for ending follow-up, 100 (33.6%) were lost to follow-up, 18 (6.0%) died, and 6 (2.0%) did not reach the criterion for ending follow-up after 18 months of follow-up. The children with malnutrition in the department of surgery had a significantly higher proportion of children reaching the criterion for ending follow-up than those in the department of internal medicine (P<0.05). The children with severe malnutrition had a significantly higher loss to follow-up rate than those with moderate nutrition (P<0.05). The majority of children with emaciation reached the criterion for ending follow-up at month 3 after discharge, while those with growth retardation reached such the criterion at months 3-6 after discharge. Up to 1 year after discharge, more than 80% of the children with different types of malnutrition reached the nutrition criterion for ending follow-up. CONCLUSIONS Most of the children with malnutrition who adhere to follow-up can reach the expected nutrition criterion within 1 year after discharge. The children with growth retardation have slower nutritional recovery than those with emaciation.