Validation of a subjective global assessment questionnaire

Area of Science:

• Pediatric Nutrition
• Clinical Assessment Tools
• Health Services Research

Background:

• Nutritional status is critical for pediatric patient outcomes.
• Validated assessment tools are essential for accurate diagnosis and intervention.
• The Subjective Global Nutritional Assessment (SGNA) is a widely used screening tool.

Purpose of the Study:

• To validate the Subjective Global Nutritional Assessment (SGNA) questionnaire for use in Brazilian children and adolescents.
• To assess the concurrent validity, predictive validity, and inter-observer reliability of the SGNA in a pediatric hospital setting.

Main Methods:

• A cross-sectional study involving 242 hospitalized pediatric patients (30 days to 13 years).
• Validation included translation/backtranslation, concurrent validity, predictive validity (re-admission rates), and inter-observer reliability.
• Anthropometric measurements and clinical data were collected.

Main Results:

• 80% of patients were well-nourished, 14.5% moderately malnourished, and 5.4% severely malnourished by SGNA.
• SGNA showed weak correlation with anthropometry but good predictive value for length of stay and readmission.
• Inter-observer reliability was good (Kappa=0.74).

Conclusions:

• The SGNA questionnaire is validated for use in hospitalized Brazilian pediatric patients.
• The SGNA demonstrates good reliability and predictive capacity in this population.
• This validated tool can be utilized in clinical practice and research for nutritional assessment.