Serum total protein and albumin levels among malnourished children aged 6- 59 months in Zaria

Abstract

Background: Children with PEM have greater deficiency of total protein and albumin and in severe cases the total protein may be reduced to about 50 percent.

Objective: To determine the serum protein and albumin levels among children with Protein Energy Malnutrition and the controls at Institute of Child Health, Ahmadu Bello University Teaching Hospital (ABUTH) Zaria.

Method: This study was a case control health- based descriptive study to estimate the prevalence of serum protein and serum albumin in undernourished children in Zaria.

Using systematic sampling method, a total of 132 children (cases and controls) between 6 and 59 months of age were selected for assessment of their serum protein and serum albumin. Both the total serum protein and albumin levels were analysed on the Boerhringer Mannheim Automated Hitachi system 704 using the Biuret and colour change methods respectively.

Results: The prevalence of low serum protein levels (<60g/l) in this study among the cases was 46.9% with highest prevalence of 33.3% seen in severe wasting. While the prevalence of low serum proteins for the control was 1.5%. The prevalence of low serum albumin levels (< 25 g/l ) among the cases was found to be 24.2% with severe stunting accounting for 15.2%, while for the controls, a low serum albumin levels of 3.0% occurred in this study.

Conclusion: This study has been able to establish low serum levels of protein and albumin among under-nourished children in Zaria.

Keywords: Serum protein; Albumin; under-nutrition; children