Length of stay to recover from severe acute malnutrition and associated factors among under-five years children admitted to public hospitals in Aksum, Ethiopia.

BackgroundSevere acute malnutrition is defined by MethodsSample size was calculated using STATA version 12.0. A retrospective cohort study was conducted using pretested questionnaire in the public hospitals in Aksum on children aged 0-59 months. Cleaned data was entered to Epi info version 7.1.4 and then exported into SPSS version 21 for analysis. Bivariable and multivariable analyses were performed using Kaplan Meier and Cox regression models. During bivariable analysis, variables with p-value ResultsA total of 564 participants enrolled to the study. The rate of recovery was 56% with median length of stay of 15 days (95% CI: 14.1, 15.9). The independent predictors of length of stay to recovery were presence of diarrhea at admission (AHR = 0.573, 95% CI: 0.415-0.793), being HIV positive (AHR = 0.391, 95% CI: 0.194-0.788), palmar pallor (AHR = 0.575, 95% CI: 0.416-0.794), presence of other co-morbidities at admission (AHR = 0.415, 95% CI: 0.302-0.570) and not being treated with plumpy nut (AHR = 0.368, 95% CI: 0.262-0.518).ConclusionsLength of stay is in the acceptable range of the international and national set of standards. Nevertheless, the recovery rate was lower compared to the Sphere standard. Presence of diarrhea, palmar pallor, HIV other co-morbidities and not treated with plumpy nut were found independent protective factors for recovery from sever acute malnutrition