To evaluate nutritional recovery patterns in 106 undernourished children assisted by the Center of Nutritional Recovery and Education (CREN, in Portuguese) between January 1995 and December 1999.

CREN assists undernourished children aged 0 to 72 months living in the southern regions of Sao Paulo, in an outpatient setting. Nutritional status was assessed by Z-scores of weight-for-age, height-for-age and weight-for-height. Nutritional recovery evaluation considered Z-score gains in weight-for-age and height-for-age, grouping into four categories (Z-score increment of 0·50 between groups). Children with birth weight less than 2500 g were classified as low birth weight (LBW), while those born at term and with LBW were classified as small for gestational age.

CREN (Center of Nutritional Recovery and Education in Portuguese), Sao Paulo, Brazil.

One hundred and six children from CREN.

Among the 106 evaluated children, ninety-eight (92·5 %) recovered their weight or height and seventy-two (67·9 %) recovered both. Nearly half of studied children presented a nutritional recovery (increase in Z-score) of more than 0·50 in height-for-age (46·2 %) and about 40 % in weight-for-age (38·7 %). Multivariate analysis showed that treatment duration and initial weight-for-age contributed to weight-for-age Z-score increment, explaining 25 % of the variation; and treatment duration, initial height-for-age and weight-for-age Z-score increment contributed to height-for-age Z-score increment, explaining 62 % of the variation.

Our findings show that nutritional recovery among children who attended CREN was influenced primarily by the degree of nutritional deficit at admission. It has also been shown that biological variables are more important than socio-economic status in determining the rate of nutritional recovery.