This results in delayed social interaction skills. Due to being lethargic and apathetic, malnourished children have problems in understanding information and they are less interested in their surroundings than well-nourished children. It is also one of the reasons for low economic productivity in adulthood. Undernutrition affects a child’s behaviour and temperament. Malnutrition in children is one of the main reasons for developmental delay, which leads to a lifelong adverse impact on health. This study revealed a significant prevalence of suspected developmental delays (61.1%) among children aged under five with severe acute malnutrition. All other variables, such as complementary feeding practices (complementary food was probed in detail from mothers according to WHO recommendations by showing them different utensils and food charts to assess quantity, variety and frequency of feeding), hygiene practices, vaccination, and history of measles, were shown to not be related to delayed development among children (Table 3). Furthermore, a history of worm infestation ( p = 0.14) was included in the multivariate analysis as the level of significance was set at p < 0.20 for this analysis.
Parents’ refusal to participate in the study and a failure to assess a child’s developmental status were also exclusion criteria.Ī significant association with delayed development was found for the frequency of hospital visits ( p = 0.03), which are visits to hospital in the past 6 months due to diarrhoea, respiratory infections or because of any other illness (which was confirmed from their medical records to avoid any recall bias) history of tuberculosis (TB) contact ( p = 0.01) (defined as a child with close contact to a TB smear-positive adult patient at home or in the near surroundings) and breastfeeding practices ( p = 0.01). Children aged over 59 months or below 6 months were also not included. Instead, they were referred to an inpatient facility for further evaluation and treatment.
Children who were clinically ill due to any of these symptoms or having poor appetite were not included in the study. At enrolment, these children had SAM without complications according to World Health Organization (WHO) criteria (mid-upper arm circumference 39 ☌), anorexia, severe dehydration, grade three pitting oedema, severe anaemia and acute lower respiratory tract infection. Overall, 185 children, aged 6–59 months, were selected to participate in the study on condition of receiving their parents’ written informed consent.
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