OBJECTIVE: Dengue infection is one of the leading causes of hospitalization and death among children. Severe dengue infection often has unpredictable clinical progressions and outcomes. The nutritional status had conflicting effects on the complication of dengue in some previous studies. This study aims to determine the correlation between the nutritional status and the severity of dengue infection in children.
METHOD: An analytical study with cross-sectional design, was conducted in this study, and the samples were collected from January to March 2019 in Child Health Department of Prof. DR. R. D. Kandou Hospital. Inclusion criteria was patients aged 1 to 17 years old who have been serologically confirmed dengue. Exclusion criteria was patients with hematological diseases and other bacterial infectious diseases. We used World Health Organization (WHO) chart to measure nutritional status for children aged 1 to 5 years old; and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) 2000 chart for children aged >5 years old. We categorized dengue infection severity based on WHO 2011 as dengue fever and dengue hemorrhagic fever grade I to IV; and nutritional status as undernutrition, good nutrition, overweight, and obese. Statistical analysis was done to find correlation by using Chi-Square test and Gamma correlation, and p-value of <0.05 was considered significant.
RESULT: Out of the 169 patients with dengue infection (89 boys, 80 girls), the mean aged was 7.67 years (ranged from 1 to 17 years old). Statistical analysis showed X 2 = 8.738 and Gamma correlation values Gr?0.059. There was no statistically significant correlation between the nutritional status and the severity of dengue infection with p = 0.362.
CONCLUSION: There was no significant correlation between the nutritional status and the severity of dengue infection.