title: Home-based treatment of acute malnutrition in Cambodian urban poor communities.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  The prevalence of malnutrition in Cambodia is among the highest in Southeast Asia. Until recently, there has been a consensus that the treatment and rehabilitation of acutely severely malnourished children should take place in hospitals; however, limited local health resources often place constraints upon the inpatient management of these children.
  
  
  OBJECTIVE
  This study reviews the outcomes of a community nutrition program designed to rehabilitate children under the age of 5 years with moderate or severe acute malnutrition living in a poor urban community in Phnom Penh, Cambodia.
  
  
  METHODS
  Clinical records of the program participants during the period from January 1999 to November 2006 were reviewed. Attainment of recovery weight-for-height z-scores, the length of time taken to achieve this recovery, rates of weight gain, mortality rate, and rate of default were determined from the data.
  
  
  RESULTS
  One hundred fifty-nine children aged 4 years or younger with a mean admission weight-for-height z-score of -3.3 were treated. The mean outcome weight-for-height z-score was -1.5. Eighty-seven children (55%) reached a weight-for-height z-score > or = -1 over a mean period of 14 weeks of rehabilitation. The average rate of weight gain was 4 g/kg/day. The case fatality rate was 5.6%.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  This program is an example of effective, community-based rehabilitation of children with moderate or severe acute malnutrition in an urban, Southeast Asian, non-humanitarian-relief context, through a combination of nutritional education, regular home visiting, and food support.
authors.affiliation: University of Otago, Christchurch, New Zealand.
authors.forename: Stephen
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Harris
authors.forename: Susan
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Jack
mesh_terms: D002160:Cambodia; D002675:Child, Preschool; D003153:Community Health Services; D019049:Developed Countries; D005260:Female; D005522:Food Services; D006792:House Calls; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D008297:Male; D044342:Malnutrition / Q000178:diet therapy* / Q000208:ethnology / Q000503:physiopathology; D008499:Medical Records; D009035:Mothers / Q000193:education; D052756:Nutritional Sciences / Q000193:education; D010353:Patient Education as Topic; D011204:Poverty Areas; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D012720:Severity of Illness Index; D014504:Urban Health / Q000208:ethnology; D015430:Weight Gain