Nutritional risk screening of hospitalized children aged < 3 years.

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 (STRONG) 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. STRONG 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 STRONG 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. STRONG score was worse among those who deteriorated, which together with its significant positive correlation with the duration of hospital stay, emphasized that STRONG score can be a predictive tool.

Conclusions: The use of STRONG 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.