Clinical and Anthropometric Profile of Severe Acute Malnourished Children on Therapeutic Intervention with WHO/UNICEF Recommended Therapeutic Food and Home Based Therapeutic Food

Clinical and anthropometric profile of severe acute malnourished children on therapeutic intervention with WHO/UNICEF recommended therapeutic food and home based therapeutic food. Authors Bharti Bhandari Anita Mehta, Ayesha Imran From the Department of Pediatrics, Baba Raghav Das Medical College, Gorakhpur, UP, India. Objective-To compare the WHO/ UNICEF recommended therapeutic food to the home based therapeutic food in management of SAM children. Methodology-Prospective randomized control trial over two groups of patients comprising 70 patients in each group in time duration of one year. One group was receiving WHO/UNICEF recommended therapeutic food and other group receiving home based therapeutic food. Both kind of therapeutic food was having almost equal amount of energy density, proteins, vitamins and minerals. Fishers exact test was applied to compare the proportions of two groups. Subjects were enrolled after the approval of ethical committee. Results- Out of 137 patients 22 (32.3 %) were belonging to less than -4 z score in group A while 27 (39.1 %) in group B, 31 (22.6 %) had associated oedema. Rate of weight gain was significantly high in group receiving home based therapeutic food. Rate of height/length gain is statistically significant in group received home based therapeutic food. Change in MUAC is also high among the children received home based therapeutic food. Conclusion- After comparing both groups we found that both kinds of therapeutic food are effective for management of SAM, but home based therapeutic food found to be more effective. Key Words- Severe Acute Malnutrition, Management, Efficacy, Therapeutic food, India.