Journal
NUTRIENTS
Volume 15, Issue 3, Pages -Publisher
MDPI
DOI: 10.3390/nu15030484
Keywords
growth failure; children; malnutrition; pediatric heart diseases; congenital heart diseases; obesity
Categories
Ask authors/readers for more resources
The study aimed to describe the growth parameters of Italian children with congenital heart disease (CHD) compared to healthy children. Anthropometric data of pediatric patients with CHD and healthy controls were collected. The results showed that healthy children had better growth indicators in terms of age, height, and weight compared to children with CHD, and the latter group exhibited higher rates of stunting and underweight.
Children with congenital heart disease (CHD) are at increased risk for undernutrition. The aim of our study was to describe the growth parameters of Italian children with CHD compared to healthy children. We performed a cross-sectional study collecting the anthropometric data of pediatric patients with CHD and healthy controls. WHO and Italian z-scores for weight for age (WZ), length/height for age (HZ), weight for height (WHZ) and body mass index (BMIZ) were collected. A total of 657 patients (566 with CHD and 91 healthy controls) were enrolled: 255 had mild CHD, 223 had moderate CHD and 88 had severe CHD. Compared to CHD patients, healthy children were younger (age: 7.5 +/- 5.4 vs. 5.6 +/- 4.3 years, p = 0.0009), taller/longer (HZ: 0.14 +/- 1.41 vs. 0.62 +/- 1.20, p < 0.002) and heavier (WZ: -0,07 +/- 1.32 vs. 0.31 +/- 1.13, p = 0.009) with no significant differences in BMIZ (-0,14 +/- 1.24 vs. -0.07 +/- 1.13, p = 0.64) and WHZ (0.05 +/- 1.47 vs. 0.43 +/- 1.07, p = 0.1187). Moderate and severe CHD patients presented lower z-scores at any age, with a more remarkable difference in children younger than 2 years (WZ) and older than 5 years (HZ, WZ and BMIZ). Stunting and underweight were significantly more present in children affected by CHD (p < 0.01). In conclusion, CHD negatively affects the growth of children based on the severity of the disease, even in a high-income country, resulting in a significant percentage of undernutrition in this population.
Authors
I am an author on this paper
Click your name to claim this paper and add it to your profile.
Reviews
Recommended
No Data Available