Nutritional Status and Asymptomatic Infection in Young Children in Two Different Endemic Areas after Seasonal Malaria Chemoprevention Campaign in Mali |Biomedgrid

Undernutrition represents an additional burden in Mali where malaria remains a major public health problem. A cross sectional survey was carried out in November 2018 and 2019 at the end of the Seasonal Malaria Chemoprevention (SMC) campaign to investigate the association between asymptomatic infection and nutritional status. A total of 541 children aged 6 to 59 months were included, 233 (43.0%) in Koila Bamanan (in an irrigated area with longer seasonal malaria transmission) and 308 (57.0%) in Kita. Data on parasitemia and nutritional status were collected and analyzed using logistic regression. Overall, underweight prevalence was 16.9% in Kita vs. 14.6% in Koila (p = 0.4); 25.6% vs. 40.8% (p = 0.001) for stunting and 14.9% vs. 10.7% (p = 0.001) for wasting in Kita and Koila, respectively. The prevalence of asymptomatic infection was 17.9% in Kita vs. 6.2% in Koila among children 6-23 months (p = 0.045). In multivariate analysis, anemia was associated with underweight (adjusted OR = 2.92; 95%IC [1.59-5.38]), and stunting (adjusted OR = 3.17, 95%IC [2.02-4.98]). Asymptomatic infection was associated with underweight (adjusted OR = 2.41, 95%IC [1.21-4.80].