Sickle cell disease (SCD) is a public health problem that interferes in the nutritional status of children and adolescents.
To describe of the nutritional status and identify the factors associated with the growth deficit or obesity of children and adolescents with sickle cell disease.
Critical analysis of originals articles published in Portuguese, English and Spanish in the electronic bases Medline, SciELO and LILACS with participants of 0 to 19 years old diagnosed with SCD.
We identified 37 articles that describe low weight, short stature and overweight or obesity prevalence ranging between 3 and 100%, 8.2% and 24.0%, 1.6% and 22.4%, respectively. The associated factors to the growth deficit were the increase of resting energy expenditure, the presence of low bone density, the high prevalence of low zinc and D-vitamin plasma concentration, the low consume of calcium and D-vitamin, vessel occlusion crises, increased need of transfusions and hormonal amendments presence.
Amendments by weight and stature were frequent; however, we note an adjustment once the presence of overweight and obesity already exists in this group. The blood transfusion, the zinc supplementation and the regular use of hydroxyurea has shown benefit in the growth of children and adolescents with sickle cell disease.