Incidence and course of child malnutrition according to clinical or anthropometrical assessment: a longitudinal study from rural DR Congo

Table 2 Shifts in severity of malnutrition after 3 months in children with incident of moderate clinical malnutrition (McM), marasmus, moderate wasting, severe wasting moderate stunting and severe stunting

	Total number of incident cases	Nutritional status after three months % (95% CI)
		McM	Marasmus	Kwashiorkor	Normal clinical status
McM¹	1044	20.4 (18.0, 22.8)	2.5 (1.6, 3.4)	0,3	74.3 (71.3, 76.7)
Marasmus²	198	5.1 (2.0, 8.2)	9.6 (5.5, 13.7)	1.0	80.3 (74.4, 85.6)
Kwashiorkor³	37	0	0	24.3 (10.5, 38.1)	62.2 (44.6, 77.8)
		Moderate wasting	Severe wasting		No wasting
Moderate wasting⁴	232	25.0 (19.4, 30.6)	4.7 (2.0, 7.4)		66.4 (60.3, 72.5)
Severe wasting⁵	61	27.9 (16.6, 39.2)	11.5 (3.5, 19.5)		52.5 (40.0, 65.0)
		Moderate stunting	Severe stunting		No stunting
Moderate stunting⁶	687	57.2 (53.5, 60.9)	7.7 (5.7, 9.7)		30.9 (27.4, 34.4)
Severe stunting⁷	557	32.1 (28.2, 36.0)	62.5 (58.5, 66.5)		3.4 (1.9, 4.9)

¹Identified as the presence of wasting of the gluteus muscle at inspection and/or palpation without signs of marasmus or kwashiorkor.
²Assessed by inspection of abnormal visibility of skeletal structures and by absence or near-absence of palpable gluteus muscle.
³Assessed using the presence of pitting oedema of the ankles and/or feet as a criterion.
⁴Weight-for-length/height Z-score <-2 to >-3.
⁵Weight-for-length/height Z-score <-3.
⁶Length/height-for-age Z-score <-2 to >-3.
⁷Length/height-for-age Z-score <-3.

ISSN: 1471-2431