Prevalence and characterization of chronic malnutrition in children under five years of age in a hospital in Cuba

Introduction: Malnutrition is a multifactorial pathological condition that affects the human organism systemically. Objective: To determine the prevalence and characterization of malnutrition in children under five years of age. Method: cross-sectional descriptive observational study in malnourished children under 5 years of age admitted to the San Miguel del Padrón Hospital between 2020 and 2022. The nutritional evaluation was done through the percentile tables of the Ministry of Public Health. Patient information was processed using computational methods. Results: The prevalence of chronic malnutrition was 2.11%. Of the 247 children in the study, 78.14% had mild malnutrition, 58.30% were children of mothers under 20 years of age, 49.39% of upper secondary education and 46.56% of housewives. The single mother category and family dysfunction were present in 37.25 % and 63.56 %. The low economic per capita was present at 73.68%. 48.58 % corresponded to ages between 1-2 years and 55.06 % to males. 85.83% had a good birth weight. There was abandonment of breastfeeding before the third month in 65.99%. Complementation was incorrect in 83.81%. Anemia was the most frequent laboratory abnormality. The main causes of admission were febrile syndrome and bronchiolitis. Conclusion: Most of the malnourished children presented nutritional limitation due to family dysfunction, low per capita economic and deprivation of breastfeeding and supplementation, conditions that can be prevented with health education programs.