Nutritional status of children and adolescents with haemophilia in Basra, Iraq

Patients with haemophilia are at increased risk of being overweight or obese, which in turn may have a profound effect on morbidity and quality of life.

To assess the nutritional status of paediatric patients with haemophilia and identify possible risk factors that may adversely affect their nutritional status.

A case-control study was performed on 63 haemophilia patients and 135 control subjects aged 5-18 years. For all participants, weight, height and body mass index Z (BMIZ) score were assessed. Physical activity (PA) was assessed using the International Physical Activity Questionnaire and the Children's Physical Activity Questionnaire for participants ≥15 years and 5-14 years old, respectively.

The frequency of overweight and obesity was 36.29% among the control group compared with 23.81% among patients, while thinness was higher in patients with haemophilia (19.05%) compared with 9.63% in the control group, P = .042. Low PA was reported in 22.73% of haemophilia patients aged 5-14 years compared with 2.06% in the control group, P < .001. However, no difference in PA was reported among participants aged ≥15 years. There were no significant differences in the frequency of nutritional problems among patients with respect to age, type of haemophilia, disease severity and hepatitis C seropositivity. Regression analysis revealed a negative association between paternal educational level and high BMIZ in patients ≥15 years, P = .028.

Paediatric patients seem to have lower BMIZ than the control group. In addition, most of the studied factors were not found to predict either high or low BMIZ among studied patients.