[Nutritional status in children hospitalized in minimum care wards. Hospital de Niños de la Santísima Trinidad. Córdoba].

Introduction: Malnutrition in children hospitalized has been informed in papers from Argentina and others countries. It can affect immunity and increases the rate of mortality when it is severe. The objective of the present study was to describe the nutritional status in children admitted in minimum care wards in a tertiary care children's hospital.

Population: Children under 6 years (1-71.6 months) admitted in minimum care wards in Hospital de Niños de la Santísima Trinidad, between 15th October 2003 and 15th January 2004, with acute or potentially reversible and chronic medical or surgical conditions.

Material And Methods: Anthropometry compared with growth reference data from Argentina and lab methods were used in order to test the nutritional condition in patients who met the inclusion criteria (n=439) carried out from the moment patients were admitted to the hospital. The prevalence of: a) malnutrition with P/E < P3 and modified Waterlow criteria, b) overweight and obesity by relative weight and c) abnormal biochemical parameters were calculated.

Results: The prevalence of malnutrition taking into account P/E values < percentile 3 was 25.1% and modified Waterlow criteria: 50.2%. Among the malnourished children, 49.6% of them had acute evolution and 35.1% chronic evolution; 4.5% presented severe malnutrition (60% had a chronic illness); 29 patients (9.1%) were overweight or obese. The haemoglobin values were low in 47.5% and the albumin level in 3.1% of the patients.

Conclusions: The prevalences of malnutrition and anaemia are high among the children admitted to the hospital; the prevalences of overweight and obesity were low in the patients evaluated. A careful evaluation and nutritional care is required in hospitalized children.