Statistical Risk Characteristics and Risk Scoring of Hospital-Acquired Malnutrition for Pediatric Patients

Malnutrition is a global health problem and challenge for every country. It may occur in any form and affect all levels of age including children. We pay particular attention to the so-called hospital-acquired malnutrition (HaM) for pediatric patients. Our aim was to explore statistical risk factors or characteristics as well as to forecast risk scoring for such malnutrition.

This study employed a cross-sectional design involving children from 1 month to 18 years of age who were hospitalized for at least 72 hours. We used secondary data from 308 medical records of pediatric patients who were admitted to the hospital in 2017. We excluded the data if the patient had tumors or organomegaly, fluid retention, and dehydration. HaM was determined based on a weight loss each day during hospitalization until the day of discharge. Statistical data analysis is carried out for both descriptive and inferential statistics. Our predictive model is yielded by linear regression, and risk scoring is obtained through logistic regression.

The findings showed several risk factors or characteristics for HaM prevalence: sex, age, medical diagnosis, diet, nutrition route, and NEWS score. The early warning system to pediatric patients is conducted by calculating malnutrition-at-risk in which a value beyond 100.5 is considered as having high potential risk for HaM.

Nurses are expected to monitor pediatric patients' condition, including measuring the anthropometry regularly, in order to identify the initial signs of HaM.