The nutritional status of the children who have functional constipation and assessment of the factors affecting their nutritional status

The objectives of this study are to assess the nutritional status and determine the factors affecting nutrition of children who have functional constipation. Sociodemographic characteristics, toilet habbit, nutritional status were analyzed and Subjective Global Nutritional Assesment(SGNA) was performed for evaluation. We performed an outpatient study including 103 volunteer patients diagnosed functional constipation who presented to Afyon Kocatepe University Hospital Pediatry Clinic between April 2016 and September 2016. There were no significant difference with regard to gender, Age and delivery type in functional constipation (p>0,05). With the increase of economic status, malnutrition decreased significantly (p<0,05). There was no significant relation in risk of malnutrition and duration of breastfeeding (p>0,05). Duration of breastfeeding was similar with countrywide data. With the delay of starting to complementary feeding and decrease in number of snack meals, malnutrition increased significantly (p<0,05). With the acquisition of toilet habbit, constipation frequency increased significantly (p<0,05). There was significant relation between stunted and fruit, vegetable consumption (p<0,05). Sedentary life-style, increase of sleep duration, decrease of appetite and decrease in functional capacity were found to significantly increase malnutrition according to SGNA (p<0,05). When SGNA, Gomez and Waterlow classifications were compared, correlation between the results were statistically significant (p<0,05). İt was shown that SGNA scoring correctly evaluated the nutritional status of the patients in this study. This study revealed that nutritional habbit, sociodemographic characteristics and physical activity of children have effects on functional constipation. As a conclusion; after the start of breastfeeding, every step of nutrition has to be questioned in course of constipation.