Title

Impact of omega-3 fatty acids on calorie intake and certain anthropometric measurements in children with sickle cell disease in Saudi Arabia

Authors

Shahida Khan^1*2, Ghazi Damanhouri^1,3, Tahir Jameel4, Ashraf Ali^1,2, Ahmad Makki^1,2, Sarah Khan^1,5, Ibtehal AlAnsari¹, Saeed Halawani⁶, Fatma Zahrani⁷, Mohammad AlKazmi⁸, Ibrahim Ghita⁸

Affiliation

¹Applied Nutrition Group, King Fahd Medical Research Center, King Abdulaziz University, Jeddah, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia; ²Department of Medical Laboratory technology, Faculty of Applied Medical Sciences, King Abdulaziz University, Jeddah, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia; ³Department of Hematology, King Abdulaziz University hospital, King Abdulaziz University, Jeddah, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia; ⁴King Abdulaziz University hospital, Hematology department, Rabigh Branch, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia; ⁵Diabetes Unit, King Edward Memorial Hospital, 489, Sardar Moodliar Road, Rasta Peth, Pune, India; ⁶Department of Hematology and Immunology, Umm Al Qura University, Faculty of Medicine, Makkah, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia; ⁷Department of Pediatrics, King Abdulaziz University hospital, King Abdulaziz University, Jeddah, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia; ⁸Department of Hematology, Al-Noor Specialist hospital Makah, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia

Email

Dr. Shahida Aziz Khan - Email-sakhan01@kau.edu.sa; shahidakhan2009@gmail.com; *Corresponding author

Article Type

Research Article

Date

Received February 20, 2019; Accepted February 25, 2019; Published March 15, 2019

The nutritional status and growth in children with SCD is compromised due to intake of diet that is low in calories as well as deficient in nutrients. Growth stunting and a low body mass index have been observed in these children. Some children exhibit pica which is an abnormal eating pattern by ingesting things other than food, like paper, wood etc. This also was found to correlate to lower hemoglobin values. Interventions with certain essential nutrients such as omega-3 fatty acids are known to benefit these children in terms of lowering their complications due to the disease. We therefore wished to see if omega-3 fatty acids exhibit positive effects on their nutritional intake and growth parameters too. Hence, we supplemented these children with omega-3 fatty acids for a period of six months. Both the male and female children with the disease significantly improved their calorific intake as well as body mass index. Also a lowering of pica status was distinctly observed.

Keywords

Diet, nutrition deficiency, disease severity, sickle cell disease, Saudi Arabia

Citation

Khan et al. Bioinformation 15(3): 189-193 (2019)

Edited by

P Kangueane

ISSN

0973-2063

Publisher

Biomedical Informatics

License

This is an Open Access article which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly credited. This is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License.