Prevalence of malnutrition in hospitalised children: retrospective study in a Spanish tertiary-level hospital

OBJECTIVE To analyse the prevalence of malnutrition among paediatric patients at the time of hospital admission throughout a calendar year in a tertiary-level hospital and to identify those patients and/or groups of pathologies with a higher risk of malnutrition. DESIGN Observational (retrospective evaluation of nutrition status). SETTING Navarra Hospital Complex, Pamplona, Spain. PARTICIPANTS A total of 852 patients hospitalised in 2013 in a Spanish tertiary-level paediatric hospital (462 males and 390 females). MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES Sex, age, body mass index at the moment of admission and days of hospitalisation and diagnosis codified according to the International Classification of Diseases were registered. RESULTS The prevalence of malnutrition patients registered at the moment of admission was 8.2%. Diseases of the nervous system (22.9%), together with diseases of the respiratory system (22.9%), infectious diseases (18.6%), congenital malformations (11.4%) and diseases of the genitourinary system (8.6%) account for 84.4% of the cases with malnutrition. CONCLUSIONS The overall prevalence rate for malnutrition in paediatric patients at the moment of admission in our hospital was 8.2%, being a figure similar to those published in occidental countries. It should be mandatory to accomplish an initial screening and follow-up during hospitalisation of younger patients and those suffering from diseases of the nervous and/or respiratory system and, especially, from congenital diseases.