A Case Study on Severely Acute Malnourished (SAM) Patients in Lakshmipur General Hospital, Bangladesh

Background: Childhood malnutrition remains as one of the major health concerns in Bangladesh though the country has been a leading figure in tackling childhood malnutrition all over the world in the last couple of decades. Despite of unprecedented development, the childhood malnutrition in this country is very prevalent and severe stunting of 9% is among the major indicators which articulates the whole scenario. Therefore this case study attempted to find out the severity of severely acute malnourished (SAM) patients admitted to Lakshmipur Sadar Hospital, Bangladesh by considering their relationship with their socioeconomic, knowledge and facilities they could afford.

Methods: This was a case study of 7 SAM patients who admitted to this hospital during the period of April-June 2018. Data was analyzed in Emergency Nutritional Assessment (ENA) software to calculate and WHO reference was used to compare. A questionnaire was used to collect background information from caregivers.

Case Presentation: The age of the SAM patients were between 6-36 months while they were getting treated in hospital in acute and rehabilitation phase; 4 of them had pitting edema. All the patients were severely underweight (WAZ<-3sd), stunted (HAZ<-3sd) and 4 of them were severely wasted (WHZ<-3sd). All the patients had common symptoms of a SAM patient, the mother’s basic nutritional knowledge and socioeconomic conditions were found to be poor and therefore were having very limited opportunities of healthcare facilities.

Conclusion: Though more in-depth research is required to have any proper conclusion; however this case study does warrant a strong issue towards improvement of nutritional knowledge, socioeconomic conditions and healthcare access and utilization which in turns affect the nutritional status of the poor babies. Proper targeted and context specific intervention is, hence, necessary to improve the nutritional status of the severely malnourished children.