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Published on: June 20, 2020
Nutritional risk screening of hospitalized children aged < 3 years
Sanaa Shaaban1, May Nassar1, Yasmin El-Gendy1
1Faculty of Medicine, Ain Shams University, Cairo, Egypt.
Insights
The STRONGkids screening tool effectively identifies hospitalized children at risk of malnutrition. Early detection using STRONGkids can improve patient care and reduce hospital stays.
Area of Science:
- Pediatric Nutrition
- Clinical Assessment
- Public Health
Background:
- Identifying malnutrition risk in hospitalized children is challenging.
- Early detection is crucial for timely intervention and improved outcomes.
Purpose of the Study:
- To evaluate the Screening Tool for Risk on Nutritional status and Growth (STRONGkids) in children under 3 years.
- To correlate STRONGkids scores with the severity of nutritional derangements in hospitalized children.
Main Methods:
- A cross-sectional study involving 500 children under 3 years admitted to a children's hospital.
- Utilized the STRONGkids score for nutritional risk assessment.
- Employed World Health Organization growth charts to define underweight, wasted, and stunted status.
Main Results:
- 37.8% of children were identified as high risk for malnutrition by STRONGkids.
- High prevalence of underweight (62.4%), stunting (58.4%), and wasting (57.8%) was observed.
- STRONGkids scores correlated positively with hospital stay duration and predicted deterioration in wasted patients.
Conclusions:
- The STRONGkids tool facilitates early identification of children vulnerable to malnutrition.
- Prompt interventions based on STRONGkids screening can enhance patient care.
- Utilizing STRONGkids may contribute to shortening hospitalization periods.
Background:
Identification of children at risk of malnutrition is not easily achieved in hospital settings.
Aims:
To assess the merits of using the Screening Tool for Risk on Nutritional status and Growth (STRONGkids) as a nutrition screening tool in hospitalized children aged < 3 years and correlate it with the severity of their nutritional derangements.
Methods:
This cross-sectional study was conducted on 500 children aged < 3 years admitted to the Children's Hospital, Ain Shams University, Cairo, Egypt. STRONGkids score was used to assess the risk for nutritional derangements and World Health Organization growth charts were used to define underweight, wasted and stunted patients upon admission and discharge.
Results:
According to STRONGkids score, 19.6% of patients were low risk, 42.6% were moderate risk and 37.8% were high risk. Out of the enrolled patients, 62.4% were underweight, 58.4% were stunted and 57.8% were wasted. Among the 66 patients with severe wasting, nutritional status improved in 6.06% while deterioration was observed in 13.0% of the moderately wasted patients. STRONGkids score was worse among those who deteriorated, which together with its significant positive correlation with the duration of hospital stay, emphasized that STRONGkids score can be a predictive tool.
Conclusions:
The use of STRONGkids screening tool can ensure early identification of children vulnerable to malnutrition, ensuring prompt interventions that may contribute to overall improvements in patient care, as well as shortening hospitalization period.
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