Nutritional status at admission of children with cancer in Malawi.
BACKGROUND
Malnutrition at diagnosis is found in 10-50% of children with cancer in industrialized countries. In developing countries a large proportion of the normal paediatric population is undernourished and children with cancer often present late with advanced disease. Therefore it would be expected that many children with cancer are malnourished at admission. Malnutrition is associated with more severe chemotherapy toxicity and infectious complications.


METHODS
All new paediatric oncology patients admitted in the Queen Elizabeth Central Hospital, Blantyre, Malawi between 1, January 2007 and 1, January 2008 were included. We documented age, clinical diagnosis, HIV status, weight, height, mid-upper-arm-circumference (MUAC) and triceps skinfold (TSF), and calculated arm muscle area (AMA). Nutritional data were compared with the 1978 NCHS growth curves.


RESULTS
Of 128 children, 70 (55.1%) had an AMA for age <5th percentile and 76 (59.3%) had a TSF and MUAC below the 5th percentile, both parameters indicating acute malnutrition. Fifty seven patients (44.5%) had a height for age <-2 SD (indicative of stunting), and 22 patients (17.2%) had a weight for height (WFH) <-2 SD.


CONCLUSIONS
Arm anthropometry shows that more than half of Malawian children with cancer are severely acutely malnourished at diagnosis. WFH, in children with large tumour masses, is less sensitive than arm anthropometry in detecting acute malnutrition. Forty-five percent of paediatric oncology patients in Malawi are stunted, making interpretation of weight for age (WFA) very difficult.
Israëls
Trijn
T
Department of Paediatrics, College of Medicine, University of Malawi, Blantyre, Malawi. trijnisraels@hotmail.com
Chirambo
Chawanangwa
C
Caron
Huib N
HN
Molyneux
Elizabeth M
EM
D000293:Adolescent; D000886:Anthropometry; D001132:Arm / Q000033:anatomy & histology; D001827:Body Height; D001835:Body Weight; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D003906:Developing Countries; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D008295:Malawi / Q000453:epidemiology; D044342:Malnutrition / Q000150:complications* / Q000453:epidemiology*; D009369:Neoplasms / Q000150:complications*; D009752:Nutritional Status / Q000502:physiology*; D010343:Patient Admission; D012885:Skinfold Thickness