Application Of Two Nutritional Risk Screening Tools For Hospitalized Children With Digestive System Diseases

Objective:Discuss the application value of the Screening Tool for Risk of Nutrition in Growth Kids(STRONGkids)and the Screening Tool for the Assessment of Malnutrition in Pediatrics(STAMP)in pediatric digestive diseases for early diagnosis of malnutrition in children.Methods:We conducted a nutritional risk screening using both the STRONGkids and STAMP tools on 1020 hospitalized children with digestive system diseases admitted to Shanxi Children’s Hospital from January to June 2021.We also analyzed data on patients’ blood biochemical indicators,incidence of hospital-acquired infections,length of hospital stay,and total hospitalization costs after admission.Results:Among 1020 pediatric digestive inpatients,there were 571(55.98%)males and 449(44.01%)females;246 cases(24.12%)were aged 1-12 months,373 cases(36.57%)were aged 1-3 years,and 401 cases(39.31%)were over 3 years old.Infants and young children were more likely to be at risk of malnutrition(P<0.01).Using the STRONGkids screening tool,48(4.70%)cases were found to have a high degree of malnutrition risk,780(76.47%)cases had a moderate degree of malnutrition risk,and 192(18.82%)cases had a low degree of malnutrition risk.The STAMP screening tool showed that 482(47.25%)cases had a high degree of malnutrition risk,430(42.15%)cases had a moderate degree of malnutrition risk,and 108(10.59%)cases had a low degree of malnutrition risk.Of those evaluated by the WHO gold standard for nutritional assessment,515(50.49%)were identified as having borderline malnutrition or malnutrition.The detection rate of malnutrition risk was positively correlated with the detection rate of malnutrition,with correlation coefficients of0.306 and 0.319 for STRONGkids and STAMP,respectively(P<0.05).The corresponding ROC curve areas for STRONGkids and STAMP were 0.626 and 0.724,respectively(P<0.05).Both tools identified patients with high malnutrition risk who had lower levels of hemoglobin,total protein,albumin,and prealbumin(P<0.05),longer hospital stays,higher hospitalization costs,and higher rates of nosocomial infections(P<0.05).Conclusion:Children with digestive system diseases are at high risk of malnutrition,and infants and young children are at high risk of malnutrition.Both STRONGkids and STAMP can identify hospitalized patients at risk of malnutrition,with STAMP being more effective in practice.STRONGkids has higher sensitivity while STAMP has higher specificity.Therefore,both tools should be promoted and applied in clinical practice according to actual situations to improve the level of clinical nutrition diagnosis and treatment and improve patient outcomes.