Time to Recovery and Its Predictors among Children 6–59 Months Admitted with Severe Acute Malnutrition to East Amhara Hospitals, Northeast Ethiopia: A Multicenter Prospective Cohort Study

BACKGROUND: Malnutrition has been among the most common public health problems in the world, especially in developing countries including Ethiopia. Even though the Ethiopian government launched stabilization centers in different hospitals, there are limited data on how long children will stay in treatment centers to recover from severe acute malnutrition. This study aimed to assess the time to recovery and its predictors among children 6–59 months with severe acute malnutrition admitted to public hospitals in East Amhara, Northeast Ethiopia. METHODS: Institution-based, prospective cohort study was conducted in seven public hospitals in East Amhara and a total of 341 children were included in the study. The results were determined by Kaplan–Meier procedure, log-rank test, and Cox-regression to predict the time to recovery and to identify the predictors of recovery time. Variables having P value ≤0.2 during binary analysis were entered into multivarable Cox proportional hazards regression analysis. P value <0.05 was considered statistically significant. RESULTS: The nutritional recovery rate was 6.9 per 100 person-days with a median nutritional recovery time of 11 days (an interquartile range of 6). The independent predictors like using NG tube for feeding (AHR = 0.44, 95% CI: 0.27–0.71), not entering phase 2 on day 10 (AHR = 0.19, 95% CI: 0.12–0.29), and being admitted to referral hospitals (AHR = 0.52 95% CI: 0.37–0.73) were associated with longer periods of nutritional recovery time. CONCLUSION: Both the recovery rate and the recovery time were within the acceptable minimum standards. But, special attention has to be given to children who failed to enter phase 2 on day 10, for those who needed NG tube for feeding, and for those admitted to referral hospitals during inpatient management.