Browsing by Author "Laigong, Paul"
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Item Age at menarche in relation to nutritional status and critical life events among rural and urban secondary school girls in post-conflict Northern Uganda(BMC women's health, 2014) Odongkara Mpora, Beatrice; Piloya, Thereza; Awor, Sylvia; Ngwiri, Thomas; Laigong, Paul; Mworozi, Edison A.; Hochberg, Ze’evMenarche age is an important indicator of reproductive health of a woman or a community. In industrial societies, age at menarche has been declining over the last 150 years with a secular trend, and similar trends have been reported in some developing countries. Menarche age is affected by genetic and environmental cues, including nutrition. The study was designed to determine the age at menarche and its relation to childhood critical life events and nutritional status in post-conflict northern Uganda. Methods: This was a comparative cross-sectional study of rural and urban secondary school girls in northern Uganda. Structured questionnaires were administered to 274 secondary school girls, aged 12 – 18 years to determine the age at menarche in relation to home location, nutritional status, body composition and critical life events. Results: The mean age at menarche was 13.6 ± 1.3 for rural and 13.3 ± 1.4 years for urban dwelling girls (t = −1.996, p = 0.047). Among the body composition measures, hip circumference was negatively correlated with the age at menarche (r = −0.109, p = 0.036), whereas height, BMI and waist circumference did not correlate with menarche. Paternal (but not maternal) education was associated with earlier menarche (F = 2.959, p = 0.033). Childhood critical life events were not associated with age at menarche. Conclusions: Age at menarche differed among urban and rural dwelling school girls and dependent on current nutritional status, as manifested by the hip circumference. It was not associated with extreme stressful childhood critical life events.Item Nutritional rickets among children admitted with severe pneumonia at Mulago hospital, Uganda: a cross-sectional study(BMC pediatrics, 2018) Piloya, Thereza; Odongkara, Beatrice; Maloba Were, Edward; Ameda, Faith; Mworozi, Edison; Laigong, PaulThere’s abundant sunshine in the tropics but severe rickets is still observed. Nutritional rickets is associated with an increased risk of acute lower respiratory infections. Pneumonia is the leading cause of death in the under 5 -year old children with the highest burden in developing countries. Both Pneumonia and rickets are common in the developing countries and may affect clinical presentation and outcome. This study aimed to determine the prevalence and associated factors of nutritional rickets in children admitted with severe pneumonia. Methods: This was a cross-sectional study of children aged 2–59 months presenting with severe pneumonia at an emergency unit. We enrolled 221 children between February and June 2012 after consent. A pre-coded questionnaire was used to collect data on socio-demographic, nutritional and past medical history. Physical exam was done for signs of rickets and anthropometric measurements. Serum calcium, phosphorus, and alkaline phosphatase (ALP) were assessed. Children with any physical signs of rickets or biochemical rickets (ALP > 400 IU); had a wrist x-ray done. Nutritional rickets was defined as the presence of radiological changes of cupping or fraying and/ or metaphyseal thickening. Severe pneumonia was defined using the WHO criteria. Statistical analysis was performed using the Stata 10 statistical package. P- value < 0.05 was significant. Results: The prevalence of nutritional rickets among children with severe pneumonia is 9.5%. However, 14.5% had raised ALP (biochemical rickets). The factors independently associated with rickets was an elevated alkaline phosphatase; p-value < 0.001, or 32.95 95% CI (10.54–102.93). Other factors like breastfeeding, big family size, birth order were not significantly associated with rickets. Low serum calcium was detected in 22 (9.9%) of the 221 participants. Overall few children with rickets had typical clinical features of rickets on physical examination. Conclusion: Rickets is a common problem in our setting despite ample sunshine. Clinicians should actively assess children for rickets in this setting and screen for rickets in those children at high risk even without clinical features.