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Table 5 Factors associated with behaviour difficulties and mental health disorders following severe malaria

From: Cerebral malaria is associated with long-term mental health disorders: a cross sectional survey of a long-term cohort

Demographic and clinical features

Cerebral malaria exposed children, N = 173

Severe malaria anaemia exposed children, N = 99

 

With mental health disorder, n = 18

No mental health disorder, n = 155

p a value

With mental health disorder, n = 4

No mental health disorder, n = 95

p a value

Gender, male (%)

12 (66.7)

91 (58.7)

0.515

2 (50.0)

60 (63.2)

0.594

Age on exposure, mean (SD) yr

4.2 (2.1)

4.0 (2.0)

0.693

3.2 (1.9)

3.4 (1.4)

0.812

Duration of fever prior to hospitalization, median (IQR) days

3 (2.5)

3 (2.4)

0.149

3. (3.4)

4 (3.5)

0.695

Profound coma (BCS ≤ 1 or GCS ≤ 6) on admission

7 (38.9)

39 (25.2)

0.212

Seizure recurrences during hospitalization, (%)

13 (72.5)

79 (51.0)

0.087

Admission Hb, mean (SD) in g/dl

7.8 (2.1)

7.1 (2.1)

0.150

4.6 (1.2)

4.6 (2.0)

0.841

Admission lactate, mean (SD)

4.1 (4.4)

4.6 (3.4)

0.588

6.0 (3.0)

5.2 (3.6)

0.694

Hypoglycaemia (blood glucose <2.2 mmol/L) on admission

3 (16.7)

8 (5.2)

0.058

0 (0)

4 (4.4)

0.543

Presence of malaria retinopathy,  %

10 (55.8)

103 (66.5)

0.358

Total duration of coma, median (IQR) hoursb

72.0 (36.0, 115)

48.0 (28.5, 78.7)

0.039

Neurologic sequelae on discharge,  %

9 (50.0)

32 (20.7)

0.006

  1. aStudent’s t test for age, Wilcoxon rank-sum for other continuous variables, χ2 or Fisher’s exact test as appropriate for categorical variables
  2. bTime from onset of coma to regaining full consciousness in hours