Institutionalising quality of care in inpatient facilities for the management of SAM in India

In Rajasthan, North India, 20.4% of children under 5 years old are wasted and 7.3% are severely wasted. Wasting is particularly bad in the tribal Bahran region.

To tackle this, the government set up integrated malnutrition treatment centres, where children with severe acute malnutrition (SAM children) can be referred for a required inpatient stay of 14 days or more. However, most caregivers, especially mothers, find it challenging to be away from home for over two weeks. This means they often refuse to be admitted or leave the centre abruptly against medical advice.

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