Psychomotor disorders in children 3-6 years of age diagnosed with malnutrition

Abstract

In hospitals, malnutrition in children remains one of the major health problems, therefore this research aims primarily to find if there were psychomotor abnormalities in children of 3-6 years with malnutrition at Zamora, Michoacán health center. We should evaluate the alterations that occur before and after nutritional treatment.
Sixty children, who were divided into two groups, were evaluated. Group 1 (n=30) children diagnosed with malnutrition and Group 2 (n=30) healthy control.
They were evaluated in two groups of children with the Child Neuropsychological Maturity Questionnaire CUMANIN (instrument for the assessment of neuropsychological maturity in preschool population), and subsequently to Group 1 was given a treatment with a nutritional supplement daily for 6 months. Once treatment ended CUMANIN re-test was applied to both groups.
Results: group 1 showed statistically significant differences in weight (t = -4.19, df = 48, p <0.05). For group 2, the differences were statistically significant for the variables: psychomotor (t = -4.20, df = 47, p <0.05) (as equilibrium) and CUMANIN total score (t = -2.53, df = 47, p <0.05), which includes laterality.
With the results we can conclude that malnutrition in children despite improving their scores on psychomotor abilities did not reach the level of development of healthy children.