The relationship between nutritional status with length of stay in 1-5 years old children with diarrhea at Wangaya General Hospital Denpasar

Abstract

Background: Diarrhea is still the second-largest cause of children under-five's mortality worldwide. Six million children die every year due to diarrhea and it mostly occurs in developing countries. The main cause of diarrhea deaths is due to malnutrition. In malnutrition there is an increase in the severity of diarrheal diseases, this makes malnutrition and diarrhea a vicious circle.Objective: To investigate the relation between nutritional status and length of stay under-five children with diarrheaMethod: A cross-sectional study was conducted from August 2018 to January 2019 using the consecutive sampling methods. The subjects were children aged 1-5 years old hospitalized for diarrhea at Wangaya Hospital Denpasar that fulfills the inclusion and exclusion criteria. The characteristics of the subject such as gender, children's age, birth weight, exclusive breastfeeding status, immunization status, degree of dehydration, mother’s employment, and economic factor.Result: A total of 42 patients were the subjects of the study. Of 10 subjects with wasted nutritional status, 7 (70%) subjects had long stays (> 4 days), and 3 (30%) others with a short length of stay (≤4 days). Most subjects aged 12-24 months were 52.4%. Most of the subjects were male (57.1%). The results of the analysis showed that nutritional status significantly affected the length of stay of diarrhea in children under five (p-value 0.001; PR 5.6; 95% CI 2.05-9.26).Conclusion: There is a significant relationship between nutritional status with the length of stay in children under five.