The Prevalence of Malnutrition and Effectiveness of STRONGkids Tool in the Identification of Malnutrition Risks among Pediatric Surgical Patients

Abstract

Providing data on the prevalence of malnutrition and risk of malnutrition in a prospectively recruited group of hospitalised pediatric surgical patients, the data acquired in the present study emphasise the need to raise clinician's awareness about the importance of nutritional status assessment among hospitalised pediatric patients and the benefits of identifying patients at the risk of nutritional depletion before malnutrition occurs. Our findings support the use of the STRONGkids tool among pediatric surgical patients to identify patients at risk for malnutrition and to increase the physician's awareness of nutritional assessment among hospitalised patients upon admission.