Comparison of malnutrition and malnutrition screening tools in pediatric oncology patients: A cross-sectional study.

Objectives: The aim of this study was to determine the prevalence of malnutrition, to compare nutritional evaluation tools, and to highlight the importance of nutritional status in pediatric oncology patients.

Methods: This study evaluated the nutritional status, based on height, weight, and midupper arm circumference, of 170 patients ages 5 months to 18 years who were hospitalized at the Ege University Hospital Pediatric Oncology Clinic. The prevalence of malnutrition was determined using the malnutrition screening tools, STRONGkids (SK) and Pediatric Yorkhill Malnutrition Score (PYMS). Correlations, sensitivity, specificity, and the positive and negative predictive values between the screening tools were calculated.

Results: In all, 68.2% of the patients were diagnosed with a solid tumor. According to SK, 59.4% had a moderate risk of malnutrition, and 40.6% had a high risk. According to PYMS, 30.6% of patients had a low to moderate risk of malnutrition, and 69.4% had a high risk of malnutrition. Minimal agreement was noted between SK and PYMS (Kappa value: 0.40 and 0.18, respectively). The sensitivity of PYMS was higher than that of SK (92.68 and 78.05, respectively). In total, 22.9% of the patients had a body mass index of <5%, and 21.2% had a midupper arm circumference of <5.

Conclusions: The present findings show that, in general, pediatric oncology patients have a high risk of malnutrition. Although SK and PYMS do not differ significantly, PYMS has higher sensitivity for detecting malnutrition. The nutritional status of pediatric oncology patients should be monitored using appropriate screening techniques throughout their treatment.