Survival status and factors associated with treatment outcome of severely malnourished children admitted to Ayder referral hospital: a cross-sectional study

Background: Severe acute malnutrition remains the major cause of morbidity and mortality for children under fiveyears of age in developing countries. The prevalence of wasting, underweight and stunting has remained high inEthiopia and even unacceptably higher in Tigray region. The objective of the study is to assess the survival statusand treatment outcome of patients with severe acute malnutrition and to identify contributing factors for poortreatment outcome.Methods: An institutional-based cross-sectional study was conducted on 195 patients, selected using systematicrandom sampling technique, from 24-Mar-2015 to 7-Jun-2015 in Ayder Referral Hospital. Logistic regression wascarried out to identify factors associated with treatment outcome. Rates of mortality associated with the diseasewere determined using Kaplan-Meier survival analysis. A Log Rank, Breslow, and Tarone-Ware test were employedfor the overall comparisons of the survival curves. Statistical significance was declared at p – value Result: Out of 195 children admitted with SAM, the cure, death, defaulter, non-respondent and transferred-outrates were 22.1%, 3.6%, 43.6%, 9.2% and 21.5% respectively. Overall, 43.6% of the children were recovered from theirdisease. The mean length of stay of a ‘recovered’ child in the hospital was 21.56 ±1.27 days (95% CI: 19.04–24.09 days). Free from acute febrile illness (AOR = 4.20, 95% CI: 1.10–16.09, p 70% of weight for height (WFH) and mid-upper armcircumference (MUAC) of >12 cm at admission had a better treatment outcome than children with WFH of ≤ 70%(p Conclusion: The cure rate in this study was found to be sub-optimal. Absence of acute febrile illness anddeworming medication use were factors contributing to good treatment outcome. A WFH of >70%, MUAC of ≥12 cm and treatment using RUTF provided a longer all-cause mortality protection