Screening of malnutrition among hospitalized children in zagazig university hospitals

Malnutrition has been frequently reported in patients on admission to hospital. Because this not always detected promptly, screening of nutritional risk on admission has been widely advocated. Although there is no universally accepted gold standard for defining undernutrition, the definition used has been widely used by clinical nutrition specialists. Anthropometric measures are an easy, but time consuming way of identifying children with malnutrition. They identify more children with malnutrition than clinical diagnosis alone. Therefore it should be considered to implement standardized anthropometry in a hospital setting.Objective: this study was to assess the prevalence of malnutrition in children hospitalized in Zagazig University hospitals and to evaluate the influence of type of department in the management of malnutrition.Methods: A cross sectional study was done on 300 children aged between 2 months and 16 years. They were recruited from Zagazig University Hospitals. In the period from January 2006 to June 2006. Data were gathered by an interview questionnaire to child’s mother or care giver including questions about their personal data and socio-demographic characteristics. They were asked about history of diseases and recent infections especially diarrhea, trauma, operations, vaccination, vitamin A supplementation, family history and previous intake of drugs.Results: Anthropometric measurements were carried out as follow; weight for height, weight for age and BMI. Laboratory investigations (serum albumin and hemoglobin) were estimated. The study showed that all anthropometric measurements were lowest in the underweight group followed by the borderline then the normal ones. The prevalence of underweight as a was 28.3% and the prevalence of wasting was 58.2% The study revealed that: Energy intake from protein equals the lower level of the normal range of RDA. Energy intake from lipids are more than the normal range of RDA. Energy intake from CHO are lower than the normal range of RDA. Daily intake of vitamin A to RDA are above normal but don’t reach the toxic levels. Daily intake of vitamin D was less than the RDA (about the half). The actual caloric ratio to the RDA was 80.6% in the follow up groups. Laboratory investigations revealed that the values of serum albumin were within normal level with significantly lower values in underweight group compared to the other two groups and results of hemoglobin were less than normal level with significantly lower values in borderline and underweight compared to the normal group.Conclusion: The prevalence of malnutrition is high in hospitalized children with no care is directed towards their nutritional state and they don’t receive sufficient nutrient supplementation.