Time to recovery from severe acute malnutrition and predictors among children aged 6–59 months at public hospitals: retrospective follow-up study

Severe acute malnutrition is a major cause of illness and death among children under the age of five in Ethiopia. However, there is limited evidence regarding the success of treatment and the length of hospital stays for children with severe acute malnutrition. The objective of this research was to assess the recovery period from severe acute malnutrition and determine potential predictors of recovery. A retrospective follow-up study was conducted. Children aged 6-59 months with severe acute malnutrition who had been treated at the therapeutic feeding unit were selected using a simple random sampling technique. The data was analyzed using Stata v14. Descriptive statistics were used to compute the nature of the variables. Kaplan-Meier with the log-rank test was used to test for the presence of differences in categorical variables. Model goodness of fit and assumptions were checked by the Cox-Snell residual and global tests, respectively. A p-value of 0.25 in the bivariable Cox regression analysis was used for the multivariable Cox regression analysis. Variables with p values less than 0.05 in the multivariable Cox regression were considered significant predictors of recovery time from severe acute malnutrition. In this study, the median recovery time was nine days, with an interquartile range of 7 to 11 days. The incidence rate of recovery was 11.24%. Children who had marasmus, pneumonia at admission, anemia at admission, had not been fully vaccinated, had not received vitamin A, and had not received plumpy'Nut had a statistically significant association with the time to recovery of severe acute malnutrition. Marasmus, pneumonia, and anemia at admission were the predictors that delayed the recovery time of children from their severe acute malnutrition. On the contrary, children who had been given vitamin A and plumpy nuts were the predictors that fastened recovery time. Therefore, special attention should be given to children who have marasmus, comorbidities like pneumonia, and anemia to shorten their recovery time from their severe acute malnutrition status.