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Abstract
Studying the link between child malnutrition and disease morbidity and mortality has gained much ground over the past years. With focus being drawn towards malnutrition’s connection with congenital heart diseases (CHD), it was found that despite the advancements their management, still malnutrition rates persist to stay high in this population. To study the prevalence of malnutrition in under five children with CHD and study the factors related to it and thus raise the awareness of such a problem and its implications. This study included 300 under five CHD patients attending the cardiology outpatient clinic in Aboulrish Pediatrics hospital. An anonymous, structured interview questionnaire was designed to collect data from the guardians regarding sociodemographic data, nutritional knowledge and care, different feeding habits and patterns, medical care and condition. Anthropometric measurements were obtained for all the cases, for which growth curves were plotted and compared to the WHO standards and laboratory investigations were performed. The study showed the mean age of the patients to be 20.8 ± 17.6 months, with varying uncomplicated and non-severe CHD diagnoses. The mean weight for age z- score was 1.9 ± 0.6, the mean height for age z- score was 1.8 ± 0.6 and the mean weight for height z- score was 1.2 ± 0.7, this in addition to the mean Hb% of the studied patients was 11.6 ± 1.7. Stunting was found in 89 (29.7%) patients, wasting in 20 (6.7%) and 132 (44%) children were underweight, with a total malnutrition of 141 (47%). The prevalence of anemia was 96 (32%). Positive correlations were found for malnutrition and anemia, financial status and commencement of complementary feeding as well as a significant negative correlation between breastfeeding duration and stunting