Novel approaches to assessing body composition of acutely malnourished infants under 6 months
Principal investigator: Martha Mwangome1
Co-investigators: Melkamu Berhane2, Alemseged Andissa2, Tsinuel Girma2, Bitiya Admasu2, James Berkley1, Phillip Bejon1, Jonathan Wells3
Collaborating institutions: 1) KEMRI Welcome Trust Research Program 2) Jimma University 3) University College London.
Background, Objectives and Methods: It is becoming increasingly essential to accurately estimate and monitor body composition (BC) in a bid to differentiate weight gain of infants recovering from growth faltering through feeding interventions. This is because rapid weight gain in infancy has been associated with abdominal obesity and other chronic ailments in later years. This study aims to provide information on how BC of malnourished infants can accurately be estimated in a resource poor setting. The study is a cross-sectional observational study. We intend to recruit a total number of 96 Ethiopian infants aged between 1 to 6 months old that can be categorised within three different nutritional classifications; 32 infants with severe acute malnutrition (weight-for-length (WFL) Z score of less than minus 3), another 32 infants with moderate acute malnutrition (WFL Z<-2 but >-3) and a third group of nutritionally healthy infants (WFLZ>-1). Each infant will have their BC measure by the air plethymography technique (ADP) and the Deuterium Dilution technique (D2O). Although either D2O or ADP can be applied independently to determine BC in healthy infants, neither will be accurate in malnourished infants. This is because of the difference in total body water which is expected to be lower in malnourished infants due to dehydration. An accompanying questionnaire will collect anthropometric, demographic and morbidity information.
Funding Source: Welcome Trust Research Program
Study period: March 2019 to December 2019