NUTRITIONAL STATUS OF CHILDREN UNDER 5 YEARS RECEIVED IN CONSULTATION AT THE BASSILA ZONE HOSPITAL (NORTH-WEST BENIN)

The nutritional status of children under 5 years of age was an important indicator for monitoring their growth. This study aims to determine the nutritional status of children under five 5 years of age received in consultation and/or hospitalized pediatric ward of Bassila Area Hospital. This was a prospective, descriptive and analytical study that is unwound from March 7 to May 21, 2019. The study included children under 5 years whose parents agreed to do medical exams at the hospital.The size and weight of the children were collected. Anthropometric indices were calculated using WHO Anthro software (Version 3.2.2). Results of the Blood count, Thick Drop / Parasite Density and C-Reactive Protein Counts were obtained from the children's records. Consenting parents have been subjected to series of questions developed for this purpose. Excel and SPSS software were used for data processing and analysis. The threshold of significance was 5%. In total, 300 children were the subject of this study. 26.9% of the children surveyed were emaciated, 23% were stunted, 28.3% were underweight and 8.6% were overweight. In addition, 90.67% of children were anemic with 48.9% severe cases. Etiological research has shown that 90.44% of children had microcytic anemia and 69.37% had normocytic anemia.All of us, children were exposed to both energy malnutrition in all its forms and a worrying nutritional anemia from so, a double burden of malnutrition in this study population.