a survey on relationship of body mass index to subsequent mortality among hospitalized children in picu of children's hospital medical center

this study was designed to determine if body mass index was predictive of mortality in a sample of seriously ill hospitalized patients in intensive care unit (icu) of children's hospital medical center. there were 160 children from 1 month to 14 years in this prospective study for a period of 3 months in 1377. for all of the patients after calculation of bmi, the relation between age, sex, duration of illness, underlying diseases, positive family history of serious diseases, duration of admission in icu, history of previous hospitalization, mechanical ventilation, albumin and prism score with mortality risk and outcome were determined. the percentile rank of bmi between 15 to 85 accepted as normal according to previous studies. in this survey the relation between bmi and outcome of the children in icu were significant (p=0.0001). also this relation was significant with the children in ages of 1 to 6 months, duration of hospitalization less than one or more than seven days, no surgery, mechanically ventilated patients. bmi, a simple anthropometric measurement of nutrition employed in community epidemiologic studies, has now been demonstrated to be a predictor of mortality in acutely ill children in icu. future studies examining variables predictive of mortality should include bmi.