Nutritional assessment of children born to HIV infected mothers in Henan province

Objective To evaluate the nutrition status of children born to human immunodeficiency virus(HIV)-infected mothers in rural area of Henan province.Methods Totally 160 children were included in the research.Z scores of weight for age,height for age,and w eight for height were calculated using WHO Anthro 2010 at birth and 1,3,6,9, 12,and 18 months of age.Z scores based on WHO standard were used to evaluate nutrition status of the children.Results Among the children,128 were HIV negative and 32 HIV positive.The incidence of underw eight in the HIV-negative children was lower than in HIV-positive children except for the children at the age of 3 months(P<0.05).The incidence of stunning in HIV-negative children was lower than in HIV-positive children at 6,12,and 18 months of age(P<0.05). The growth trend of Z values for age-related weight(WAZ)in HIV-negative children was better than in HIV-positive children(P<0.05)and the WAZ ranged from -0.59 to 0.79 for HIV-negative children and -1.41 to -0.04 for HIV-positive children.There were significant differences in Z values for age-related height(HAZ)at 9 and 18 months of age between two groups and HAZ ranged from -1.22 to -0.17 for HIV-negative children and -1.89 to -0.14 for HIV-positive children.The length and weight of the children at different months of age were lower than the normal standards significantly.Conclusion The incidence of malnutrition in the children born to HIV infected mothers in rural area of Henan province is high,especially in the HIV-positive children.