Subject characteristics from OPD cases.

Congenital Heart Defects (CHD) are structural cardiac malformations ranging from mild to severe forms; greatly impacting childhood mortality and morbidity. Malnutrition as comorbidity in CHD raises treatment complexity, lengthens post-operative recovery period and increases risk of developmental delays. This retrospective study evaluates patterns of malnutrition in 1678 unoperated CHD cases at out-patient department of tertiary pediatric cardiac centre in India compared to 11,894 community based controls. Z-Scores based on WHO reference charts were used for Weight for Age, Height for Age and Weight for Height calculations. Majority of CHD patients belonged to poor socioeconomic background [upper lower = 49.17% and lower middle = 42.99%]. 62.46% cases were underweight, 41.3% stunted and 53.93% wasted compared to controls showing 28.88% underweight (Z = 27.38, p