(Saharu, M 2022). Factors associated with long stays among children aged 6-59 months admitted with severe acute malnutrition at Jinja regional referral hospital Nutrition unit

Abstract

The Uganda Demographic Health Survey (2016) reports that 33% of children under the age of five were stunted, an indicator of chronic malnutrition, while 14% of the children under five were underweight and 5% wasted. Prevalence of SAM is estimated at 0.9% in Busoga region which is largely served by JRRH against 1.3% at national level (UBOS, 2018). This prompted the researcher to conduct a study on factors associated with long hospital stays among children aged 6-59 months admitted with severe acute malnutrition at Jinja regional referral hospital nutrition unit from April to September 2022. Methodology This study adopted a cross sectional descriptive design involving quantitative method of data collection to gather information. Over 284 files of children suffering from SAM were reviewed. Data was later presented in frequency tables, figures and texts. Results Majority of the children’s guardians (84.5%) were female while most of the respondents (42.2%) were within the age bracket of 26-30 years. Majority of the children (59.8%) were looked after by caretakers who were primary school dropouts. It was observed that majority (42.3%) of the children were new admissions, (54.2%) of children spent an average of 26-35 days under treatment while it was observed that more than half of the cases (50.7%) had SAM with edema while (49.3%) had SAM without edema. Research findings revealed that majority (59.9%) of the children were HIV negative while the minority (40.1%) were HIV positive. Furthermore, majority (63.4%) of the children had diarrheoa. According to the observation checklist, it was observed that Health worker’s skills in managing SAM were good. However manpower to manage children with SAM was poor. Conclusion; Factors associated with prolonged hospital stay for children suffering from SAM included caretaker age, occupation, presence of comorbidities such as HIV, conditions like diarrheoa as well as health system factors such as low manpower and inadequate skills in proper management of SAM. Recommendations; Policy makers in Jinja district should sensitize parents and caregivers of children on how to care for children suffering from malnutrition.