Evaluation of Weight, Height, Body Mass Index, and Nutritional Status of Children With and Without Orofacial Cleft in Nigeria

Objective To compare the weight, height, BMI and nutritional status of patients with and without cleft lip and/or cleft palate (CLP).Design Cross-sectional studySetting Lagos University Teaching HospitalPatients, participants Patients with CLP and a control group of participants without CLP aged between 1 month and 6 years. All patients in the CLP group had not received surgical or nutritional intervention.Outcome measures Weight, height, BMI, their respective percentiles, and nutritional status according to the WHO 2006 growth curves of participantsResults Patients with CLP (n = 60, 21 males, 39 females, mean age: 19.1 months) had significantly lower percentile weight and height compared to those of controls (n = 60, 26 females, mean age, 23.6 months) in univariate analyses (all p < 0.01). Multivariate linear regression revealed significant interactions with age group for weight. In addition, proportions of underweight and short stature were significantly higher in the CLP group compared to the control group (all p < 0.05), and these significant differences were dependent on the age group with between-group significant differences only in age groups less than 25 months.Conclusions Overall, patients with CLP had significantly lower weight, height, BMI and nutritional status than their unaffected peers, and these differences were dependent on age group. Significantly lower nutritional status was seen in patients with CLP up to 24 months of age, which highlights the need for early nutritional intervention in the management of CLP.