Environmental enteropathy and malnutrition in pre-school stunted children

Abstract

Background Stunting is a common health problem that affects approximately one-third of children in developing countries. Environmental enteropathy is defined as an inflammatory condition of the gut, which is commonly presented in low-income countries that leads to intestinal malabsorption. Aim To study some risk factors of Environmental enteropathy in stunted children owing to malnutrition in the pre-school age (2–5 years). Patients and methods Our study was a cross-sectional study that was conducted on one group of 80 children aged from 2 to 5 years, who were diagnosed to have stunting owing to malnutrition. Their height-for-age was below −2 SD according to the WHO growth curves, matched regarding sex and age. They were from the National Nutrition Institute and attended the stunting clinic every Monday and Thursday from July 2017 to October 2019. Results There was a statistically significant difference between stool analysis and neopterin level (P=0.0035). A higher level of neopterin was among those with Entamoeba histolytica infection. Moreover, there was a statistically significant difference between the frequency of sweets and snack intake and neopterin level (P=0.001). Higher levels were among daily sweet intake. There was a positive correlation between neopterin level and age of starting weaning (P=0.006), whereas a negative correlation with duration of absolute breastfeeding (P=0.049). Conclusion Neopterin level was high among children with intestinal infection of E. histolytica followed by oxyrious and giardia. Dietary habits of daily intake of unhealthy sweety snacks showed a high level of neopterin. Exclusive 6 months of breastfeeding had a negative correlation with neopterin level.