Description of a Nutrition Screening and Assessment Tool and Associations with Clinical Outcomes in Preterm Newborns.

Background: Preterm newborns have higher nutrition risk and mortality. Nutrition risk screening enables early intervention. This article evaluates a nutrition screening tool in a neonatal intensive care unit (NICU).

Method: Retrospective longitudinal study of preterm newborns (aged <37 weeks) in a NICU in Brazil from May 2018 to January 2019. Weight, length, and head circumference (HC) were analyzed. Nutrition screening was defined by care levels (CLs). Outcomes analyzed were bronchopulmonary dysplasia (BPD), peri-intraventricular hemorrhage (PIVH), retinopathy of prematurity (ROP), late sepsis, length of stay, mortality, and time receiving enteral and parenteral nutrition.

Results: Data on 110 newborns were studied, with median gestational age 34 (31-35) weeks, mean weight 1914.92 g (±657.7), length 42.2 cm (±4.45), and HC 29.9 cm (±2.97). Most (82.7%) of them were adequate for gestational age. Screening classifications were 41.8% (n = 46) at CL 2, 41.8% (n = 46) at CL 3, and 16.4% (n = 18) at CL 4. CL 3 and CL 4 patients had higher frequencies of BPD (P = .003), ROP (P = .027), and PIVH (P = .006) and longer enteral time (P < .001) and length of stay (P < .001). All mortality occurred in CL 4 patients (P < .001).

Conclusions: CL 3 and CL 4 patients had more BPD, ROP, PIVH, and mortality and longer enteral nutrition. Hospital stay was longer for CL ≥3 than CL 2 patients. Patients classified as CL 3 and CL 4 by the nutrition screening tool may have higher nutrition risk.