OP-050 Assessing growth and nutritional status of children with inflammatory bowel disease: a single center experience

Aim To assess growth and nutritional status of children with inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) at diagnosis & during follow-up and to investigate possible risk factors associated with malnutrition Material and Method This is a retrospective, cross-sectional study of 65 pediatric patients diagnosed with IBD. We recorded height, weight, and BMI, expressed by z-scores, at diagnosis and the last visit. BMI z-scores<-2.0 and were used to define acute malnutrition (AM); height-for-age (HFA) z-scores<-2.0 were used to define chronic malnutrition (CM). The data was analyzed along with demographics, clinical characteristics, treatment, need for surgical procedures, and comorbidities. The patients were grouped according to disease activity defined clinically by PCDAI/PUCAI as in remission and mildly/moderately/severely active. Results Of the total 65 patients (Mean age at diagnosis: 11.16±5.3 years; 66.1% adolescent onset) (61.5% CD, 38.5% UC), 55% were male. At study time, CM was observed in 13.8% (12% of UC, 15% of CD); AM was observed in 18.4% (8% of UC, 25% of CD) of patients. Based on disease activity; 41% had severe attacks at diagnosis, 78% were in remission and none had severe activity at the final visit (table 1). None of the children with acute severe attack had malnutrition (table 1). Among the children in remission, 13.7%. had AM while 13.7% had CM. Patients with AM/CM, who are in remission had a longer disease duration, except for chronically malnourished children with active disease (table 2). For all adolescent onset IBD patients, remission of the disease reduced the rate of both CM and AM (table 3). In patients under 10 years of age, it is noteworthy that CM persists even if the disease is in remission (table 3). Nutritional status according to disease activity at the time of diagnosis and at the time of study/according to clinical activity and the duration of the disease/according to clinical activity and age at diagnosis Conclusions The disease severity at diagnosis does not correlate with the severity of malnutrition. Factors other than achieving clinical remission seems to be associated with risk of malnutrition especially in patients with disease onset before the age of 10.