Abstract

LOPEZ DURE, Jessica Mariela; LOPEZ OCAMPOS, María Isabel  and  GONZALEZ CANETE, Natalia Elizabeth. Adherence to a food program aimed at children under 5 years of age, who attend a Maternal and Child Hospital in Asunción, Paraguay. Rev. cient. cienc. salud [online]. 2024, vol.6, e6143.  Epub July 31, 2024. ISSN 2664-2891.  https://doi.org/10.53732/rccsalud/2024.e6143.

Introduction. The Comprehensive Nutritional Food Program (PANI) has been carrying out actions since 2015 in health services in Asunción and years before in other regions of the country, in order to reduce the negative effects of malnutrition, however; the success of PANI depends of the beneficiaries' adherence. Objective. To determine adherence to a food program for the treatment of malnutrition in children under 5 years of age, admitted to a Maternal and Child Hospital in Asunción, between 2018 and 2021. Materials and Method. Observational, descriptive, cross-sectional study, with non-probabilistic sampling. Secondary data from children admitted to the PANI of the Maternal and Child Hospital of choice between 2018 and 2021 were included, digitized in an Excel spreadsheet and analyzed with the Epi Info version 7 software. Results. 166 samples participated in the study; The average age of the users was 1.3 years ± 1 SD. 53% were girls; 100% were of Latin ethnicity. 87.35% of children were admitted at risk of malnutrition, while moderate and severe malnutrition was 10.84% and 1.81% respectively. 50% had an income less than the minimum wage. Dropouts were 67.5% and admissions were 32.5%. Conclusion. Adherence to malnutrition treatment was low. The implementation of the PANI as a health policy must be strengthened and permanently monitored in order to guarantee its objectives, addressing other variables that may be related to dropout.

Keywords : child nutrition disorders; nutrition programs and policies; treatment adherence and compliance.

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