Nutritional Status and Quality of Life (QoL) Studies among Leukemic Children at Pediatric Institute, Hospital Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

This study attempts to determine interrelationship between nutritional status and quality of life among leukemic children. Cross sectional study involved 34 children aged 5-15 years old. Anthropometric measurements and biochemical data were obtained. A Multiple Pass 24-h Diet Recall for nutritional assessment was attained. Quality of Life (QoL) is measured using Cancer Module PedsQL. The findings revealed that leukemic children have normal development like healthy children of the same age. Majority of them had normal percentiles of height-for-age and weight-for-age with 91.2 and 97.1%, respectively and only 5.9% were stunted. Indicators of protein-energy malnutrition showed that triceps skinfold 64.7%, MUAC 73.5% and arm muscle area 73.5% were in normal percentiles. Where else, for biochemical assessment, most of them have normal albumin and total protein level, 91.8 and 79.4%, respectively but 55.9% have low hemoglobin level. There were significant difference between QoL with socioeconomic status and time of diagnose. QoL was positively correlated with weight and body mass index but negatively correlated with total protein and albumin. In conclusion, it is learned that weight, BMI, total protein and albumin were not a predictor of QoL among leukemic children.