Objective: To build a life table and determine the factors related to the time of treatment of undernourished children at a nutrition rehabilitation centre (CREN), São Paulo, Brazil.
Design: Nutritional status was assessed from weight-for-age, height-for-age and BMI-for-age Z-scores, while neuropsychomotor development was classified according to the milestones of childhood development. Life tables, Kaplan-Meier survival curves and Cox multiple regression models were employed in data analysis.
Setting: CREN (Centre of Nutritional Recovery and Education), São Paulo, Brazil.
Subjects: Undernourished children (n 228) from the southern slums of São Paulo who had received treatment at CREN under a day-hospital regime between the years 1994 and 2009.
Results: The Kaplan-Meier curves of survival analysis showed statistically significant differences in the periods of treatment at CREN between children presenting different degrees of neuropsychomotor development (log-rank = 6·621; P = 0·037). Estimates based on the multivariate Cox model revealed that children aged ≥24 months at the time of admission exhibited a lower probability of nutritional rehabilitation (hazard ratio (HR) = 0·49; P = 0·046) at the end of the period compared with infants aged up 12 months. Children presenting slow development were better rehabilitated in comparison with those exhibiting adequate evolution (HR = 4·48; P = 0·023). No significant effects of sex, degree of undernutrition or birth weight on the probability of nutritional rehabilitation were found.
Conclusions: Age and neuropsychomotor developmental status at the time of admission to CREN are critical factors in determining the duration of treatment.