Nutritional Status and Food Consumption of Thalassemia Patients Attending at Thalassemia Clinic, Khon Kaen Hospital

Abstract

The objectives of this cross-sectional descriptive study were to assess the
nutritional status and food consumption of thalassemia patients attending thalassemia
clinic at Khon Kaen Hospital, Khon Kaen province. One hundred and twenty-seven
thalassemia patients voluntarily participated. Data were collected from June to August
2015 by means of interview questionnaires including demographic data, food pattern, food
frequency questionnaires and 24-hour dietary recall. Weights and heights were obtained
from health records. The descriptive statistic was deployed using statistical software, STATA
version 10. The results were presented as number, percent, mean, standard deviation and
95% confident interval. Nutritional status was classified using INMU-Thai Growth software
and IMMUCAL V.3 software was used to calculate the energy and nutrients intake.
The results revealed that of the total 127 participants, 51.18% were male and
48.82 % were female. 72.44% were β–thalassemia/Hemoglobin E disease. 57.48% had the
Hematocrit (Hct) value before blood transfusion at 20-27%. And 52.76% had the Hematocrit
(Hct) value after blood transfusion at 28–34%. All participants were treated by blood
transfusion and 78.74% received iron chelator. For the food consumption behavior, all of
them had breakfast and dinner, 98.43% had lunch. Rice and other grilled dishes were
consumed for breakfast whereas lunch were taken at school. Soups or curry dishes with
rice were consumed for dinner. In addition, cultivated banana was the favorite consumed
fruit as well as soybean milk. Mean energy intake of the participants aged 13-17 years old
was 1,382.72 Kcal per day (95% CI=1,147.29–1,618.14). Based on weight for age, 47.37%
(95% CI=12.8–44.3) of male participants aged 13-17 years old and 29.41% (95% CI=6.5-
39.3) of female participants aged 1-6 years old were under-weight. According to height for
age, 18.75% (95% CI=4.2–23.02) of male participants aged 7-12 years old were stunting
which were higher than female participants (14.29%; 95% CI=1.1–15.6). And according to
weight for age, both males and females were wasting. 15.79% (95% CI=1.8–23.6) of males
aged 13-17 years were wasting whereas 6.67% (95% CI=0.07–15.3) of females at same age
were wasting. Among the teenage participants, 60% (95% CI=4.6-50.7) of males were underweight
whereas 66.67% (95% CI=17.6-71.1) of females were under-weight. Regarding association
analysis, there was on factors associated with nutritional status (p-value >0.05)
In conclusion, thalassemia participants had energy intake lower than daily
recommended intake and relatively high prevalence of malnutrition especially in male. So
nutrition education should be provided continuously to parents and thalassemia patients in
order to achieve proper food consumption behaviors.