DRUGS AFFECTING CHILDHOOD MALNUTRITION AND TIME-TO-RECOVERY
Author
Woodward, Alexia L
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This item will be available on: 2025-05-01
Abstract
The purpose of this descriptive correlational study was to explore drug classifications prescribed and their relationship to time-to-recovery and specific demographic characteristics in children 0-5 years with malnutrition at a Nutrition Rehabilitation Center (NRC) in Guatemala. A list of prescribed drugs was extracted from the medical records of 155 children treated in a Guatemalan NRC between 2019-2020. The prescribed drugs were coded by drug classification and associations were evaluated between drug classifications and age, time-to-recovery, malnutrition severity, gender, and COVID cohort. The most frequently used drug classifications were vitamins (95%), respiratory (75%), analgesic (68%), antibiotic (61%), and gastrointestinal agents (54%). Antibiotic, respiratory, corticosteroid, analgesic, and gastrointestinal agents were prescribed significantly more in cases with a time-to-recovery of six weeks or longer. Antiparasitics were used significantly more often in children older than 24 months. Antibiotic and neurologic agents were used more often in cases with severe malnutrition. Drug classifications prescribed most often are related to common comorbidities of malnutrition and illnesses affecting children in Guatemala, which include respiratory and diarrheal diseases. The drugs used in cases with ≥ 6-week recovery times suggest these cases may have had more comorbidities, which could explain the longer recovery times. Although there were no time-to-recovery benefits related to vitamins in this sample, the potential benefit of vitamin supplementation in malnourished children outweigh any potential risks. Caution is suggested in routine prophylactic antibiotic use, given the lack of association with improved recovery time, the potential for antibiotic drug resistance, and the negative effects on renal function.
Date
2023-04-26
Citation:
APA:
Woodward, Alexia L.
(April 2023).
DRUGS AFFECTING CHILDHOOD MALNUTRITION AND TIME-TO-RECOVERY
(Honors Thesis, East Carolina University). Retrieved from the Scholarship.
(http://hdl.handle.net/10342/13084.)
MLA:
Woodward, Alexia L.
DRUGS AFFECTING CHILDHOOD MALNUTRITION AND TIME-TO-RECOVERY .
Honors Thesis. East Carolina University,
April 2023. The Scholarship.
http://hdl.handle.net/10342/13084.
April 29, 2024.
Chicago:
Woodward, Alexia L,
“DRUGS AFFECTING CHILDHOOD MALNUTRITION AND TIME-TO-RECOVERY ”
(Honors Thesis., East Carolina University,
April 2023).
AMA:
Woodward, Alexia L.
DRUGS AFFECTING CHILDHOOD MALNUTRITION AND TIME-TO-RECOVERY
[Honors Thesis]. Greenville, NC: East Carolina University;
April 2023.
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Publisher
East Carolina University