Pediatric Gastroenterology, Hepatology & Nutrition

The Korean Society of Pediatric Gastroenterology, Hepatology and Nutrition (대한소아소화기영양학회)
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Value of Nutritional Screening Tools Versus Anthropometric Measurements in Evaluating Nutritional Status of Children in a Low/Middle-Income Country

  • Shaimaa Sayed (Department of Pediatrics, Faculty of Medicine, Cairo University) ;
  • Mortada H. F. El-Shabrawi (Department of Pediatrics, Faculty of Medicine, Cairo University) ;
  • Eman Abdelmonaem (Department of Pediatrics, Faculty of Medicine, Cairo University) ;
  • Nehal El Koofy (Department of Pediatrics, Faculty of Medicine, Cairo University) ;
  • Sara Tarek (Department of Pediatrics, Faculty of Medicine, Cairo University)
  • Received : 2022.04.16
  • Accepted : 2023.03.15
  • Published : 2023.07.15
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Abstract

Purpose: Pediatric patients in low-income countries are at a high risk of malnutrition. Numerous screening tools have been developed to detect the risk of malnutrition, including the Subjective Global Nutritional Assessment (SGNA), Pediatric Yorkhill Malnutrition Score (PYMS), Screening Tool for the Assessment of Malnutrition in Pediatrics (STAMP), and Screening Tool for Risk of Nutritional Status and Growth (STRONGkids). However, anthropometry remains the main tool for assessing malnutrition. We aimed to identify the value of four nutritional screening tools versus anthropometry for evaluating the nutritional status of children. Methods: We conducted a cross-sectional study of 1,000 children aged 1-12 years who visited the outpatient clinic of Cairo University Pediatric Hospital. Each participant was evaluated using anthropometric measurements (weight, length/height, and weight for length/height) as well as the PYMS, STAMP, STRONGkids, and SGNA screening tools. The sensitivities and specificities of these four tools were assessed using anthropometry as the gold standard. Results: Of the patients, 1.7% were underweight, 10.2% were wasted, and 35% were stunted. STRONGkids demonstrated the highest sensitivity (79.4%) and a high specificity (80.2%) for detecting malnutrition compared with weight for height, followed by STAMP, which demonstrated lower sensitivity (73.5%) but higher specificity (81.4%). PYMS demonstrated the lowest sensitivity (66.7%) and the highest specificity (93.5%), whereas SAGA demonstrated higher sensitivity (77.5%) and lower specificity (85.4%) than PYMS. Conclusion: The use of nutritional screening tools to evaluate the nutritional status of children is valuable and recommended as a simple and rapid method for identifying the risk of malnutrition in pediatric patients.

Keywords

Acknowledgement

We thank the patients and their parents/guardians who agreed to participate in this study. We thank the general outpatient clinic staff of our pediatric hospital for their cooperation.

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