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Handgrip strength and nutrition status in hospitalized pediatric patients

Catarina Silva1, Teresa F Amaral, Diana Silva

  • 1Faculty of Nutrition and Food Sciences, University of Porto, Porto, Portugal.

Nutrition in Clinical Practice : Official Publication of the American Society for Parenteral and Enteral Nutrition
|April 8, 2014
PubMed

Insights

Lower handgrip strength (HGS) may indicate undernutrition in hospitalized children. This marker is influenced by factors like sex, age, and height, requiring careful interpretation.

Area of Science:

  • Pediatric Medicine
  • Clinical Nutrition
  • Biostatistics

Background:

  • Handgrip strength (HGS) is a recognized indicator of nutritional status in adults.
  • Limited evidence exists regarding HGS as a nutritional marker in pediatric populations.
  • Hospitalized children require reliable indicators for assessing nutritional status.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To investigate the association between undernutrition and HGS in pediatric patients upon hospital admission.
  • To determine how disease severity, anthropometrics, and patient characteristics modify this association.
  • To establish HGS as a potential screening tool for undernutrition in pediatric inpatients.

Main Methods:

  • A longitudinal study involving 89 pediatric inpatients aged 6 years and older.
  • Nutritional status assessed using body mass index (BMI) z-scores.
  • HGS measured at hospital admission and discharge.

Main Results:

  • 30.3% of pediatric patients presented with undernutrition at admission.
  • A significant proportion (64%) experienced HGS decline during hospitalization.
  • HGS at admission was independently associated with undernutrition (BMI z-scores), with sex, age, height, and BMI z-scores explaining 67.1% of HGS variance.

Conclusions:

  • Reduced HGS may serve as a potential indicator of undernutrition in hospitalized pediatric patients.
  • Interpretation of HGS in pediatric patients necessitates consideration of individual sex, age, and height.
  • Further research can validate HGS for routine nutritional screening in pediatric care settings.
Abstract

Keywords:
hand strengthmalnutritionnutritional statuspediatrics

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