Adherence of Healthcare Professionals to Guidelines on Inpatient Management of Children with Severe Acute Malnutrition at the Upper East Regional Hospital in Ghana

Aim: To assess the adherence of health professionals to guidelines on inpatient management of children aged 6-59 months admitted with severe acute malnutrition (SAM)

Study Design: Retrospective descriptive study

Place and Duration of Study: Paediatric Unit of the Upper East Regional Hospital, Ghana. Records of children seen from 1st January, 2016 to 30th April, 2018 were reviewed.

Methodology: Hospital records of 75 children discharged after treatment for SAM were assessed in the study. The records were selected using convenient sampling. Data analysis was done with SPSS version 20 and results presented using descriptive statistics.

Results: Eighty-eight percent (88%) of the patients were treated for presumed infections. Of this, only 8% of the children received the recommended Ampicillin and Gentamycin therapy. Over 97% of patients were given therapeutic diets (F-75), and 90.7% of patients were assessed for dehydration. However, only one (1.3%) of the children had their blood glucose levels checked on admission. None 0(0%) of the children were given 10% IV glucose to prevent hypoglycaemia on admission and only 21.2% of patients with dehydration received the recommended ReSoMal

Conclusion: There is inadequate adherence to the recommended guidelines for inpatient management of children with SAM. This requires exploring explanations to inform strategies that promote compliance.