A study on Effect of Nutrition Supplementation in Children Living With HIV at ART Centre- A Prospective Observational Study:

Muddana Narasimha Rao; Ashish Ragireddy

doi:10.47009/ajcpn.2020.8.1.18

Muddana Narasimha Rao Assistant Professor, Department of Paediatrics, Shadan Institute of Medical Sciences, Hyderabad, Telangana, India
Ashish Ragireddy MD, Paediatrics, Shadan Institute of Medical Sciences, Hyderabad, Telangana, India

DOI: https://doi.org/10.47009/ajcpn.2020.8.1.18

Keywords: Children, HIV, Nutritional Supplements, Z-score, ART centre, BMI

Abstract

Background: The nutritional status of people living with HIV/AIDS is related to morbidity and mortality and may predict the course of HIV infection and the management of these helps in recovery and maintenance of health status.Aims & objectives: The main aim of the current study toassess the nutritional status and nutritional supplementation in children with HIV at ART center.Subjects and Methods:A prospective observational study was conducted between May 2017 and May 2018 in a total of 100 children aged 1 to 18 years with proven HIV status attending ART centre. Each child included in the study was examined clinically and their anthropometric data was recorded. They were provided with a fixed nutrition supplementation of 2 scoops of protein powder and one serving of peanut chikki per day and they were followed up regularly. At the end of one year, they were examined clinically and their anthropometric data was recorded again. Result:In the present study, about 44% of subjects were males and 56% were females. Majority of the children (55%) fell in the age group of 11-15 years. 36% were on pre-ART and 64% were on ART.At the beginning of the study, 59% of children were stunted and 64% of the children had < 2 SD of BMI for age. According to WHO, Z scores could be calculated only for children less than 10 years of age. In this study, 34 children fell in this age group and 24 among them were underweight at the beginning of the study. Conclusion:After giving the nutritional supplementation for a period of one year, there was a statistically significant improvement in height-for-age, weight-for-age and the Z scores of height-for-age, weight-for-age and BMI-for-age. Though there was an improvement in the mean values of BMI for age, this was not considered to be statistically significant. Finally, nutritional interventions should be tailored and assessed to improve growth, especially at time of ART initiation that could lead to an optimisation of their clinical response and survival of ART-treated children.

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