Association between the History of Hospital Stays, Infant Death in Mothers and Nutritional Status of Patients from 6 to 59 Months Old Admitted to Pediatric Emergency Services in Niamey, Niger

Abstract

Mothers experience a recurrence of morbid events and infant death which is an indicator of nutritional risk in the child brought for care. The aim of this study is to determine the association between histories of hospital stay, maternal infant death and the nutritional status of patients from 6 to 59 months old admitted to pediatric emergency services. It's a descriptive, transversal surveyed from 16 January to 2 May 2016 in two reference hospitals in Niamey. Patients were classified according to weight / height ratio and histories of hospital stay and infant death were collected at the mothers' interview. The study involved 287 mother and child dyads. The average age of the children was 18.6 ± 3 months and the boys accounted for 57.14%. Medical history showed 32.75% of hospitalization for mothers, 21.25% for one child death and 15% for two child's deaths. The association was significant statically between child's nutritional status and hospital stay of the mother (p = 0.012) and with the history of child death in the mother (p = 0.029). A history of childhood hospitalizations and infant death is an important indicator of nutritional risk in children admitted to pediatric emergencies.