Evaluation of a programme treating babies with nutritional risk in the Metropolitan Region

Abstract

In 1993 the Ministry of Health changed the diagnostic criteria and defined new regulations for treating children at risk of malnutrition. Objective: to evaluate the impact and factors associated with the nutritional evolution of babies enrolled in this programme. Patients and Methods: a retrospective study of a cohort of 174 babies, aged between 6 and 18 months, treated at 6 outpatient departments in Santiago. Using clinical files the nutritional evolution and recovery rate were assessed using: a) biomedical history (birth weight, age of enrolment, co-morbidity, milk feeding and weaning), b) compliance with treatment and quality of attention, c) social characteristics of the home (age and education formal of the mother and conjugal status). We describe the model that best explains the nutritional evolution using multivariate analysis. Results: 42.47% of at risk babies for weight/height regained a normal nutritional status, 15.9% deteriorated, without differences in the ratio weight/height compared to that of enrollment. Factors best explaining the evolution were maternal age (OR 1.8 CI 1.8-3.4 p < 0.05 in women less than 25), and conjugal status (OR 3.0 CI 1.5-6.0 p < 0.001 for solitary mothers or with an unstable conjugal status). Conclusions: the programme had little effect on the nutritional recuperation of the child. It is necessary to revise some of the protocol and to improve the quality of the supplements used.