American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, Vol 27, 1254-1258, Copyright © 1974 by The American Society for Clinical Nutrition, Inc.

Patterns of protein-energy malnutrition in early childhood in Jordan

¹ From the Pediatric and Nutrition Sections, Ashrafieh Hospital, Amman, Jordon

The classification of protein-energy malnutrition suggested by the Wellcome Trust working party has been applied to 99 hospitalized malnourished children in Ashrafieh Hospital, Amman, Jordan. A control group of 24 children, whose weight for age was above 90% of the Boston standard, was chosen from the vaccination center of the same hospital's out-patient department. Of the children under 80% of the Boston standard, 67% were of the nonedematous type of malnutrition (35% marasmus, 32% underweight) and 32% of the edematous type (21% kwashiorkor, 11% marasmic kwashiorkor). Marasmus affected 62% of the children as early as 3-6 months of age. When the Wellcome classification was applied to our cases there was a remarkable similarity with results from other countries, despite differences in the mean ages of the children. Mortality among the malnourished group was as high as 30% for the marasmic group. Cold injury was a major contributing factor to this high mortality, together with their early age and low body weight.