[Clinical signs of malnutrition in children living around a mining area: a case study in the city of Lubumbashi and its surrounding].

INTRODUCTION

Malnutrition remains to this day a major public health problem, particularly in developing countries. This study aimed to determine the clinical signs observed in malnourished children admitted to a care unit.

METHODS

This is a descriptive cross-sectional study, conducted from July 2013 to December 2014. Our study included 311 cases (182 malnourished children and 129 well-nourished children), based on exhaustive sampling, with an active screening of malnourished and well-nourished children. The diagnosis was made clinically and was associated with anthropometry.

RESULTS

The main collected symptoms in malnourished children were: cough or pneumonia in 42.50%, gastroenteritis in 38.55%, skin lesions in 22.91% of cases, fever in 22.35% of cases, edema in 19.0% of children, pallor in 8.38% of children; finally splenomegaly and hepatomegaly were the less common symptoms (1.68% and 2.89% respectively). Well-nourished children, instead, showed splenomegaly and fever associated with malaria.

CONCLUSION

Malnourished children living around a mining area don't differ in symptomatology from the other malnourished children, except for hepatomegaly and splenomegaly which are very rare in our malnourished children.