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Double burden of malnutrition amongst patients with first-episode schizophrenia in a psychiatric hospital: A 1-year follow-up study

Authors :
Portia N. Osuji
Justus Uchenna Onu
Source :
South African Journal of Psychiatry; Vol. 26 (2020), South African Journal of Psychiatry, Vol 26, Iss 0, Pp e1-e6 (2020), South African Journal of Psychiatry, Volume: 26, Issue: 1, Pages: 1-6, Published: 2020, The South African Journal of Psychiatry : SAJP : the Journal of the Society of Psychiatrists of South Africa
Publication Year :
2023
Publisher :
AOSIS, 2023.

Abstract

Background: Despite the burgeoning data on the double burden of malnutrition (DBM) in sub-Saharan Africa, longitudinal studies to examine malnutrition amongst first-episode schizophrenia are uncommon in the modern literature. Aim: To determine the extent of nutritional variations amongst persons with schizophrenia at intervals of 1-year treatment follow-up. Setting: This study was conducted at the Federal Neuropsychiatric Hospital, Enugu, Nigeria. Methods: Consecutive incident cases that fulfilled the criteria for schizophrenia were recruited into the study. After a baseline assessment, 206 incident cases of schizophrenia were followed up at 4th, 8th, 12th weeks, 6 months and 1 year for indicators of nutritional outcome. The body mass index (BMI) was used to measure the nutritional status amongst the study participants. Changes in the BMI across intervals of follow-up were examined using repeated measures analysis of variance, whereas the socio-demographic and clinical variables were evaluated as predictors of outcome using multiple regression analysis. Results: After 1 year of treatment with antipsychotics, the prevalence of underweight decreased from 19.9% (95% CI, 19.8% – 20.0%) at baseline to 16.0% (95% CI, 15.9% – 16.1%) at 1 year, but the prevalence of overweight/obesity increased from 29.1% (95% CI, 29.0% – 29.2%) at baseline to 43.2% (95% CI, 43.0% – 43.3%) at 1 year of follow-up. The predictors of BMI at 1 year were antipsychotic medication (32.7% variance), duration of vagrancy (24.0%) and age at onset (20.0%). Conclusion: The finding of coexistence of undernutrition and overnutrition across the intervals of treatment follow-up underscores the need for comprehensive interventions to address both extremes of malnutrition amongst patients with schizophrenia.

Details

Language :
English
ISSN :
16089685 and 20786786
Database :
OpenAIRE
Journal :
South African Journal of Psychiatry
Accession number :
edsair.doi.dedup.....d0c8673e7d55e3c6ec3130e46ad43ab0