Lack of association between nutritional status and change in clinical category among HIV-infected children in Brazil.

CONTEXT AND OBJECTIVE

Malnutrition is common among HIV-infected children. Our objective was to study the occurrence of malnutrition and its relationship with changes in clinical category among HIV-infected children.

DESIGN AND SETTING

Longitudinal study, at the Pediatrics Department and Pediatrics Investigation Center (CIPED), Faculdade de Ciências Médicas da Universidade Estadual de Campinas (Unicamp).

METHODS

We reviewed the hospital records of 127 vertically HIV-infected children. Anthropometric measurements were obtained at the beginning of follow-up, at clinical category change and five months later. These were converted to z-scores of weight/age, height/age and weight/height. Data were presented as means, standard deviations, frequency counts and percentages. The Wilcoxon and Kruskal-Wallis tests and odds ratios were used in the analysis.

RESULTS

We found that 51 (40.2%) were undernourished and 40 (31.5%) were stunted, with higher risk of being included in clinical category C. There was an association between nutritional condition and the clinical categories of the Centers for Disease Control classification (1994), and with age at symptom onset (except for height z-score). During follow-up, 36 patients (28.4%) changed their clinical category, which occurred early among the undernourished patients. The group that changed its clinical category maintained the same z-score distribution for weight, height and weight/height throughout follow-up.

CONCLUSION

Aids manifestation severity was associated with nutritional status and with age at symptom onset, but change in clinical category was not followed by worsening of nutritional status.