The nutritional status of mycetoma affected patients seen at the Mycetoma Research Center, Sudan

Nutrition plays a critical and crucial role in addressing neglected tropical diseases (NTDs) and their complications, as they often contribute to malnutrition, which can worsen the impact of these conditions. Therefore, it is necessary to investigate the nutritional status of mycetoma patients, which has not been explored previously.This descriptive cross-sectional hospital-based study was conducted at the Mycetoma Research Center (MRC), University of Khartoum, Sudan. The study included 179 confirmed mycetoma patients and an equal number of age- and sex-matched normal controls. The nutritional status of the mycetoma patients was assessed and compared with that of the control group. The majority of the patients were young adults with varying educational levels, predominantly from Central Sudan. The foot was the most commonly affected part; most patients had lesions more than 10 cm in diameter.The Body Mass Index (BMI) was calculated for both study groups, revealing that 43.5% of the patients and 53.6% of controls had a normal BMI. Furthermore, 36% of patients were underweight, contrasting with only 11% in the control group. Correlation analyses indicated no significant associations between BMI and age groups, educational levels, daily meals, food quantity, and appetite in the study population (p > 0.05). Similarly, no significant differences were observed in BMI concerning disease duration and affected sites (p = 0.0577). The Kruskal-Wallis test did not reveal significant differences in BMI means among the groups.The study revealed that most participants consumed three meals daily, and the control group showed a more robust appetite and consumed more food than the patient group (p = 0.005). Nevertheless, there were no significant differences in the consumption of different food types between the patient and control groups and among different BMI categories (p = 0.025 and 0.040, respectively).Author summary: Mycetoma primarily affects low-income people in limited-resource communities in tropical and subtropical regions. The affected mycetoma are of low socioeconomic and health education status, and their localities’ health and medical facilities are frequently inadequate. Hence, they present with massive, complicated disease; thus, the treatment outcome is suboptimal. Mycetoma has many disabilities and psychosocial effects, which may affect the patient nutritional status. Furthermore, most of the mycetoma epidemiological risk factors are indistinct and unclear. With this background, this study was conducted to determine the effect of the disease on the patients’ nutritional status and to determine if nutrition has a role in mycetoma susceptibility. The study included 179 patients with confirmed mycetoma and age and sex-matched 179 controls from their communities. The mean patients’ height was 160±14.31cm, and for the control was 166.78±10.97 cm. The patients’ body weight mean was 56.09±17.67kg; for the control, it was 67.53±16.41kg, and no statistically significant differences existed. The body mass index showed a higher percentage of underweight individuals in the patients group, which was statistically significant. No significant correlations existed between the study population BMI groups and their demographic characteristics. There were many similarities between the studied patients and the control regarding the dietary habits and diet intake. More in-depth studies are needed to determine the causal and effect relationship between mycetoma and the affected population. Nutritional support and education, while encouraging intake of therapeutic/functional locally available food items, should be fundamental in the different mycetoma management activities and measurements.