Hospital-acquired undernutrition and associated factors in children and adolescents admitted to a tertiary care hospital.

Background: The present study aimed to verify the proportion and factors associated with hospital-acquired malnutrition in the paediatric unit of a tertiary care hospital.

Methods: A retrospective study was carried out in a tertiary care hospital in the state of Maranhão, Brazil. Demographic and clinical data on children and adolescents were collected from medical records and the data regarding weight, height and z-scores of anthropometric indicators were obtained from the World Health Organization (WHO) Anthro® and WHO Anthro Plus® applications.

Agreement between nutritional risk screening tools and anthropometry in hospitalized pediatric patients.

Background/objectives: The use of malnutrition screening tools has been recommended to identify the risk of malnutrition among hospitalized children. The aim of this study was to evaluate the association between the Screening Tool for Risk on Nutritional Status and Growth (STRONGkids), the Screening Tool for the Assessment of Malnutrition in Pediatrics (STAMP), and anthropometric nutritional parameters to identify malnutrition in hospitalized children.

Subjects/methods: Data recorded in the nutrition sector for 672 pediatric patients hospitalized between 2019 and 2020 were used to complete the STRONGkids and STAMP tools.