Recovery Time and Treatment Outcomes Among Children Aged 6-59 Months with Severe Acute Malnutrition Admitted to Gardo General Hospital, Puntland, Somalia: A Retrospective Cohort Study Design

Mustafe Abdi Ali; Najmo Abdirizak Jama; Shamso Abdirahman Ahmed; Mohyadin Abdullahi Ahmed; Asia Mohamed Ahmed

doi:10.37284/eajhs.9.1.4505

Mustafe Abdi Ali East Africa University
Najmo Abdirizak Jama East Africa University
Shamso Abdirahman Ahmed Gardo General Hospital
Mohyadin Abdullahi Ahmed East Africa University
Asia Mohamed Ahmed East Africa University

DOI: https://doi.org/10.37284/eajhs.9.1.4505

Keywords: Severe acute malnutrition, Time to recovery, Children aged 6-59 months, Somalia

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Abstract

Background: Severe Acute Malnutrition (SAM), characterised by an extremely low weight-for-height or length, represents a significant health challenge in Somalia, where complex crises contribute to elevated mortality rates among children under five years of age. Objective: To estimate the median recovery time and assess treatment outcomes for children aged 6-59 months with SAM admitted to Gardo General Hospital in Gardo, Puntland, Somalia. Methods: An institutional-based retrospective cohort study was conducted from July 2023 to July 2025. The study employed data collected from the children's inquiry data form of a systematically random selected sample of 250 children. Data entry was performed using the KOBO Toolbox and subsequently exported to R Programming version 4.4.0 for analysis. Descriptive statistics were utilised to examine demographic and care-related characteristics, anthropometric and complication-related characteristics. Survival curves, such as Kaplan-Meier curves, were generated to estimate the median recovery time from Severe Acute Malnutrition (SAM). Results: The findings of this study indicated that 239(95.6%) children achieved successful treatment outcomes, 4(1.6%) children were transferred out, 4(1.6%) defaulted on their treatment, and 2 children (0.8%) remained in the program during the study period. Unfortunately, there was one recorded fatality, accounting for 1(0.4%) of the cases. Conclusion: This study found a median recovery time of 9 days and a 95.6% recovery rate for children aged 6 to 59 months with Severe Acute Malnutrition (SAM) at Gardo General Hospital.

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