The assessment of nutritional status of children with beta thalassemia major with body mass index

Aim: to assess the frequency of nutritional status of the children with thalassemia major by bmi at bahawal victoria hospital bahawalpur. methods: this cross sectional study was conducted at department of pediatrics,bahawal victoria hospital,bahawalpur from may 2015 to november 2015. total 305 patients of thalassemia major having age from 2-16 years either male or female,with 1 year duration of illness were selected for this study. nutritional status of the patients was assessed. results: in this study age range of the patients of thalassemia major was 2 to 16 years with mean age 7.88 ± 3.78 years. mean height was 118.71 ± 19.25 cm,mean weight was 20.35 ± 7.72 and mean bmi was 14.03 ± 2.71.total 179 (58.69%) patients were underweight,109 (35.74%) patients were healthy,10 (3.28%) patients were overweight and 7 (2.3%) patients were obese. statistically significant association of nutritional status with age group and duration of illness was noted. conclusion: results of this study showed that most of the thalamic patients were underweight. statistically significant association of nutritional status with age of thalamic patients and duration of illness was detected. jobs status of the parents of thalamic patients also affects the nutritional status.