Objectives: To assess the clinical outcome of management of uncomplicated severe acute malnutrition (SAM) at community level with antibiotics vs. without antibiotics.
Methods: A randomized controlled trial was conducted on children aged 6 to 59 mo with uncomplicated SAM, selected randomly from rural areas of Kanpur. A total of 100 children were enroled and were randomized into two groups, the intervention group who were given antibiotics for a week and the control group who were not given antibiotics. Rest of the management was same. Demographic, clinical and anthropometric details of each child were taken.
Results: Gender and socio-economic status was comparable in both the groups. Anthropometric parameters (mean weight for age, height for age and weight for height) in both the groups were not significantly different at the time of enrolment and also at two weeks follow-up. At 2 wk follow-up, weight/height Z score in the intervention and control group were -1.29±0.84 and -1.45±0.93, respectively (p value = 0.436).
Conclusions: It was concluded that whether antibiotics were given or not in the management of children with uncomplicated SAM, improvement in clinical and anthropometric parameters was seen without any significant difference.
Keywords: Antibiotics; Management; Severe acute malnutrition; Uncomplicated.
© 2023. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Dr. K C Chaudhuri Foundation.