Anthropometric Profile of Children with Congenital Heart Disease: Hospital-Based A Cross-Sectional Study

Introduction: In developing nations, malnutrition is a major issue for children under five. Children with congenital heart disease (CHD) would experience it with greater severity, which would raise their morbidity and mortality rates. Objective: To estimate the burden of malnutrition in children with CHD anthropometrically. Methods: After receiving ethical approval from the Institutional Ethics Committee, this hospital-based descriptive cross-sectional study was conducted in 140 children with CHD who were diagnosed for the first time after being admitted to the paediatric ward. We enrolled these children one after another till the desired sample size was achieved. Repaired CHD, CHD associated with different syndromes, and acquired heart disease were excluded. Basic demographic information, clinical characteristics, investigational details, and management data were gathered using a case record proforma. An anthropometric calculator was used to create Z-scores for each child's weight for age, length/height for age, and weight for length/height. For analysing the data, EpiInfo (3.5.1) software was used. The mean and standard deviation were used to represent continuous variables. In contrast, categorise one as a ratio and a rate. To compare the categorical variables, a chi-square test was used, and a P value <0.05 was considered statistically significant. Results Underweight, stunting, and wasting were present in 87.14%, 57.86%, and 64.29% of cases, respectively. Infants had a worse outcome than older children in terms of their nutritional health. In children with cyanotic CHD and CHD with pulmonary hypertension, malnutrition episodes were more common. The percentage of male and female children who were stunted was 66.67% and 45.76%, respectively. Conclusion: Malnutrition is more pronounced in children with CHD. Infants are more affected than older children. Length/height for age is more affected in male children than their female counterparts – a unique observation of this study.