Evaluation of the Quality of Hospital-Based Management of Severe Acute Malnutrition in Children under 5 in Benin

Abstract

Introduction: The aim of the study was to assess the quality of the management of severe acute malnutrition in the Mono Departmental Hospital Center (CHD) in Benin. Methods: This was a cross-sectional and evaluative study which took place from 03 February to 20 July 2016. The study was carried out in the mono departmental hospital of Lokossa. The non-probabilistic sampling method was used to select all our study materials and all our targets were systematically selected. Our study materials involved observation checklist, guidelines documents and questionnaires to collect data. The assessment of the quality of the hospital management of severe acute malnutrition was based on national and international standards like Benin’s national protocol of acute malnutrition management. Results: In our study, 27 cases of severe acute malnutrition (SAM) in children were considered. The median age of those children was 12 months. The rates of the components inputs, process and results were 25% (poor), 58.33% (acceptable) and 40% (poor), respectively. The sub components with respect to the norms were all related to the management of severe acute malnutrition like, availability of therapeutic foods ready for use, availability of management protocol, availability of trained and supervised staff in the management of the severe acute malnutrition and the proportion of dead and cured children. The study showed that the quality of the management of severe acute malnutrition at the mono departmental hospital of Lokossa was poor with a rate of 41.38%. Conclusion: The quality of the management of severe acute malnutrition at the mono departmental hospital of Lokossa was poor. The sub components that need to improve were the availability of therapeutic foods ready for use, availability of management protocol, along with the training and supervision of staff in charge of the management of severe acute malnutrition.