Nutritional status trajectories in cured and non-cured pediatric tuberculosis patients following six-month anti-TB treatment

Zulfahlayya Zulkifli* -  USK Pediatrics, dr. Zainoel Abidin Hospital, Banda Aceh, Provinsi Aceh, Indonesia
Bakhtiar Bakhtiar -  Division of Respirology, Department of Pediatrics, Faculty of Medicine, Universitas Syiah Kuala, Banda Aceh, Indonesia
Eka Yunita Amna -  Section of Growth and Development and Social Pediatrics, Section of Pediatric Nutrition and Metabolic Diseases Dr. Zainoel Abidin Hospital, Banda Aceh, Provinsi Aceh, Indonesia
Heru Noviat Herdata -  Division of Hermato Oncology, Departement of Pediatrics, Faculty of Medicine, Universitas Syiah Kuala, Banda Aceh, Indonesia
Mulya Safri -  Departement of Pediatrics, Faculty of Medicine, Universitas Syiah Kuala, Banda Aceh, Indonesia
Darnifayanti Darnifayanti -  Departement of Pediatrics, Faculty of Medicine, Universitas Syiah Kuala, Banda Aceh, Indonesia
DOI : 10.30867/action.v11i2.2923

Pediatric tuberculosis (TB) remains a critical public health issue in Indonesia, with 809,000 new cases reported in 2023. Malnutrition is a common comorbidity; however, the nutritional trajectory that differentiates children who achieve clinical recovery from those who do not remains underexplored. This retrospective cohort study analyzed 102 children aged 2–18 years with pulmonary TB who were treated at RSUD dr. Zainoel Abidin, Banda Aceh, from January 2024 to January 2025. Patients with comorbidities and incomplete medical records were excluded. Nutritional status was assessed using the CDC 2000 Growth Charts at three time points: baseline, 2 months, and 6 months, and analyzed using Repeated Measures ANOVA (p<0.05). Among the participants, 96 (94.1%) recovered, whereas 6 (5.9%) did not. The mean body weight increased significantly from 21.9 kg at baseline to 25.0 kg at six months (p<0.001), with the proportion of children classified as well-nourished rising from 45.1% to 71.6%. Nutritional trajectories improved significantly over the treatment period (p<0.001), with more consistent gains observed in the recovery group. In conclusion, these findings indicate that six-month anti-tuberculosis therapy (ATT) is effective not only in resolving infection but also in enhancing the nutritional status of children. Monitoring nutritional trajectories may serve as a valuable prognostic indicator for evaluating treatment response and predicting clinical outcomes in pediatric TB.

Keywords : Anti-tuberculosis therapy, nutritional status, pediatric tuberculosis, retrospective cohort, treatment outcome

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Open Access Copyright (c) 2026 Zulfahlayya, Bakhtiar, Eka Yunita Amna, Heru Noviat Herdata, Mulya Safri, Darnifayanti
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This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.

AcTion: Aceh Nutrition Journal
Published by: Department of Nutrition at the Health Polytechnic of Aceh, Ministry of Health.
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