Importancia del estado nutricional en niños mayores de 1 mes y menores de 2 años con infección aguda de la vía respiratoria inferior ingresados en el Hospital Roberto Gilbert Elizalde en el período enero 2019 – diciembre 2020.

Abstract

Background: Malnutrition is a common finding among hospitalized patients, although the coded diagnosis is under-registered. According to the Panamerican Health Organization, eleven countries in the region, including Ecuador, have not reported an improvement in the number of undernourished people. In the case of respiratory infections, the trend persists. Methods: An observational, retrospective, cross-sectional, analytical study was carried out in patients with a diagnosis of lower respiratory infections treated at the Roberto Gilbert Elizalde Hospital in the period January 2019-December 2020. Results: Of the 831 patients included, 139 of them were with moderate to severe acute malnutrition (16.7%). The group of malnourished patients had an average of 13.5 days of hospitalization vs. 5.9 days of the eutrophic group (p <0.01). A total of 20 patients with malnutrition (14.4%) presented complications vs. 56 patients (8.1%) in the eutrophic group (p 0.01). In the group of malnourished patients, 2 patients died (1.43%) vs. eutrophic group that one patient died (0.14%) (p 0.02). Conclusions: Patients with moderate to severe acute malnutrition diagnosed with lower respiratory tract infections have a longer hospital stay than patients with normal nutritional status.