Background: Malnutrition is involved in half of the deaths of under-five children as in many developing countries. In Egypt, malnutrition remains an important issue as 5.5% of under-five children are underweight, 8.4% are wasted and 21.4% are stunted. The present study was carried out to assess the prevalence and risk factors of malnutrition among sick under five children seeking medical advice at Tamiya District health care facilities in Fayoum.Methods: This cross-sectional descriptive study included 400 under five children at Tamiya district in Fayoum. It was carried out over a period of 5 months from June to October 2014. All patients were subjected to the following: History taking, anthropometric measurements including weight and length/height.Results: Our study shows that 23.2%, 18.5% and 19.3% of children were underweight, stunted and wasted, respectively. Stunting was more common in females than males. Also, our results reveal that risk factors of malnutrition were 70.6% parasitic infestation and 15.7% for gastroenteritis with statistically significant high prevalence of positive parasitic, helminthic infestation, and gastroenteritis with p-value <0.05 among wasted, stunted, and underweighted children.Conclusions: Prevalence of malnutrition was high among under five sick children. These findings indicate the need for implementing hospital and community-based intervention nutritional program.

Objectives:To assess the prevalence of hypocalcemia in outpatient clinic neonates and its relation to vitamin D and calcium supplementation.Methods:This cross-sectional analytical study was conducted at the University Teaching Hospital from May to October 2016. Data were collected from 100 neonates by interviewing mothers using a structured questionnaire; which included socio-demographic information, maternal and neonatal history; in addition to investigations of serum calcium total and ionized and serum vitamin D level.Results:The prevalence of hypocalcemia was 76%, late hypocalcemia represent 52% of hypocalcemic neonates. The prevalence of hypovitaminosis D was 38%. Hypocalcemia was found more prevalent among neonates with no history of vitamin D supplementation (98.7%), no history of maternal calcium supplementation (57.9%), while they had a history of neonatal jaundice on phototherapy (46.1%) which increased to 53.8% with late hypocalcemia.Conclusion:Neonatal hypocalcemia is widely prevalent in Fayoum governorate with significant association with a history of neonatal jaundice on phototherapy, not receiving maternal calcium or neonatal vitamin D supplementation.

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