Determinants for Effective Nutritional Counselling on Prognosis of Moderate Acute Malnutrition in Paediatric HIV/AIDS Positive Patients Conducted at Hoima Regional Referral Hospital, Uganda
Abstract
This study evaluated the determinants of effective nutritional counselling on
the prognosis of moderate acute malnutrition in Paediatric HIV/AIDS
patients at Hoima Regional Referral Hospital. This study used pre- and post study design, which measured the occurrence of an outcome of interest using
specific values in a group of participants before and after the intervention; it
was conducted among 157 paediatric HIV/AIDS patients at Hoima RRH,
western Uganda. Data were obtained from all the participants using a
questionnaire, and focus group discussion was analysed using Stata 17. The
findings reveal that of the 157 paediatric HIV/AIDS patients studied, 67.5%
improved after nutritional counselling. Paediatric HIV/AIDS patients aged
≥ 60 months (p = 0.009), caretakers whose occupations other than peasantry
(p = 0.021), and attendance to ≥ 3 nutritional counselling sessions (p =
0.004) were associated with a higher likelihood of improvement after
nutritional counselling with a significant increase in Body Mass Index of (p
= 0.007). Thus, the majority of Paediatric HIV/AIDS patients indicated a
significant improvement in prognosis after nutritional counselling and being
aged ≥ 60 months, having an attendance of ≥ 3 sessions and having a
caretaker’s occupation other than peasantry determined the effectiveness of
nutritional counselling. The study concludes that there is a need to routinely
refer Paediatric HIV/AIDS patients with moderate acute malnutrition for
nutritional counselling