Analysis of risk and prognostic factors in a population of pediatric patients hospitalized for acute malnutrition at the Chiulo hospital, Angola.

The analysis of prognostic factors revealed that the most relevant are the WHZ (weight for height z-score) at the time of admission, the presence of Stunting and the presence of other pathologies or clinical conditions associated with severe acute malnutrition. The analysis of risk factors has shown that not only food shortages, but also errors in the timing of the suspension of breastfeeding and the timing of the introduction of complementary foods play an important role. Equally important were some family risk factors, including the size of the family unit and the presence of deceased children. It also emerged that the lack of knowledge of what a child needs to grow up healthy often affects the development of malnutrition. It follows that a useful and low-cost tool for preventing child malnutrition would be large-scale nutrition education campaigns.