Anthropometry and Malaria among Children in Niger: A Cross-Sectional Study

Abstract

The complex relationship between malnutrition and malaria affects morbidity and mortality in children younger than 5 years, particularly in parts of sub-Saharan Africa where these conditions occur together seasonally. Previous research on this relationship has been inconclusive. Here, we examine the association between anthropometric indicators and malaria infection in a population-based sample of children younger than 5 years in Niger. This cross-sectional study is a secondary analysis of a cluster-randomized trial comparing treatment strategies for trachoma in Niger. We included children aged 6-60 months residing in the 48 communities enrolled in the trial who completed anthropometric and malaria infection assessments at the final study visit. We evaluated the association between anthropometric indicators, including height-for-age -score (HAZ) and weight-for-age-score (WAZ) and indicators of malaria infection, including malaria parasitemia and clinical malaria. In May 2013, we collected data from 1,649 children. Of these, 780 (47.3%) were positive for malaria parasitemia and 401 (24.3%) had clinical malaria. In models of malaria parasitemia, the adjusted odds ratio (aOR) was 1.05 (95% confidence interval [CI]: 1.00-1.10) for HAZ and 1.07 (95% CI: 0.99, 1.15) for WAZ. In models of clinical malaria, the aOR was 1.07 (95% CI: 1.02-1.11) for HAZ and 1.09 (95% CI: 1.01-1.19) for WAZ. Overall, we did not find evidence of an association between most anthropometric indicators and malaria infection. Greater height may be associated with an increased risk of clinical malaria.

Nutritional Status and Humoral Immune Response to Plasmodium falciparum in Children Aged 6–59 Months

“…e age of the children, as well as anthropometric parameters such as WHZ, HAZ, BAZ, and MUACZ, had no significant impact on the occurrence of the disease. is result corroborates those of O'brien et al (2018) who also found no association between several anthropometric parameters (HAZ, WAZ, WHZ, and MUACZ) and malaria infection [15]. However, we noted that children with acute malnutrition (WAZ) seem to develop less the disease.…”

“…However, the exact mechanism of this protective effect remains difficult to explain. According to O'brien et al (2018), the potential mechanism of this relationship is twofold, namely, behavioural through the protection of some malnourished people by mothers and caregivers and biological through the immunomodulatory effect of nutritional status or the increase in the ability of malnourished children to produce certain cytokines in response to stimulation by malaria-specific antigens [15]. In this study, malnourished refugee children supplemented with multivitamins may their effect affects positively the immune system of these children.…”

Malaria Parasitemia and Nutritional Status during the Low Transmission Season in the Presence of Azithromycin Distribution among Preschool Children in Niger

“… 4 A previous study in Niger conducted at the beginning of the malaria season found evidence of a small increase in malaria parasitemia with fever in children with higher height-for-age Z -scores (HAZ), but no other evidence of an association between nutritional status and malaria. 5 A systematic review of studies of the relationship between malaria and malnutrition concluded that the relationship is complex and called for analysis of additional individual patient data of malaria and malnutrition in different settings. 4 Poor nutritional status may predispose children to infection with malaria by modulating immune function, and children with malaria may be predisposed to malnutrition, particularly if they suffer from repeated infection.…”

A Socio-demographic Comparison of Malnutrition and Malaria Prevalence among Primary School Children in Gombe State Nigeria

“…Malnutrition and malaria are among the leading causes of morbidity and mortality among children in developing countries [1,2]. Though the relationship between the two conditions still remains controversial, there are scores of extant literature attesting to the existence of epidemiological association between malnutrition and infectious diseases generally [3][4][5][6]. The nature of such association has usually been considered to be a synergistic one -malnutrition could increase susceptibility to infection such as malaria, while episodes of infection or malaria can also precipitate nutritional deficiencies [7][8][9].…”