Development of a malnutrition screening tool for hospitalized children.

Undernutrition is seen in 26% of all children admitted to a hospital (1, 2). In
70% of all admissions it goes unrecognized and untreated (3). That is where a
great task lies for nurses and doctors, admitting a child to a hospital.
Undernutrition can have a lot of negative side-effects like reduction in
growth, higher risk to various infections, longer time of recovery and a longer
hospital stay. (2-6)
Therefore, it will be beneficial to quick and easy screen children on
undernutrition at hospital admission and to monitor the nutritional status
during the medical treatment. This will make it is possible to effectively
intervene.
Routine screening of nutritional status at admission has been hindered by the
lack of a simple nutritional assessment tool for children. This study is
designed to develop a short questionnaire that can be integrated in the nurses*
intake of the child at admission to the hospital and will take less than five
minutes time.

The primary objective of the study is to determine which questions are most
predictive for undernutrition in hospitalized children in order to develop a
quick and easy screening tool that is valid, reproducible and suitable for the
population of children from 1 year to 18 years of age.

Cross-sectional study.

The questionnaire that will be used during this study excist of 23 questions,
asking about the nutritional status of the child. As a standard procedure the
child's weigth and height is measured. Next to these measurements the
bio-elektrical impedance and the upper arm circumference is measured. This will
take approximately 10 minutes.
The burden voor the patients is low.
There will be no risks associated with participation.
When a results is measured, that needs treatment, an intervention will be
started.