PhD defence: Gut function in children hospitalized with severe acute malnutrition

Cohort study in Uganda

Betty Lanyero

PhD thesis

Impaired gut function in children with severe acute malnutrition has detrimental effects on digestion and absorption of food nutrients, intestinal permeability and gut barrier function. Severe acute malnutrition contributes to nearly 2 million deaths annually. It is therefore critical to identify interventions and simple ways to assess and improve gut function among these children.

This thesis describes the gut status and function of 400 children aged 6-59 months hospitalized for severe acute malnutrition using blood and fecal biomarkers and further defines the predictors of change in the same biomarkers during nutritional rehabilitation. Additionally, the direct transition from F-75 to RUTF therapeutic feeds during nutritional rehabilitation for children aged 6-59 months with complicated SAM is also described.

2019, 150 pages.

Time

1 November 2019, 13:00

Place

Festauditoriet 1-01, Bülowsvej 17. 1870 Frederiksberg C

Opponents 

Associate Professor Nanna Roos (chair), Department of Nutrition, Exercise and Sports, University of Copenhagen, Denmark.

Professor Tsinuel Girma, Paediatrician, Harvard University, USA.

Dr. Bente Utoft Andreassen, Consultant Pediatrician, Rigshospitalet, Copenhagen, Denmark.

Main supervisor

Professor Henrik Friis, Department of Nutrition, Exercise and Sports, University of Copenhagen, Denmark.

NEXS Co-supervisor

Dr. Ezekiel Mupere, Department of Paediatrics and Child Health, Makerere College of Health Sciences, Kampala, Uganda.

Dr. Vibeke Brix Christensen, Department of Nutrition, Exercise and Sports, University of Copenhagen, Denmark.