Large scale nutritional status assessment in pediatric hospitals

More training and awareness are needed to improve the recognition of undernutrition in hospitalised children

“…However, this finding does not correspond with data on the prevalence of undernutrition (1)(2)(3), which indicates that roughly one in every ten hospitalised child in Europe suffers from undernutrition. However, this finding does not correspond with data on the prevalence of undernutrition (1)(2)(3), which indicates that roughly one in every ten hospitalised child in Europe suffers from undernutrition.…”

“…The lack of nutritional screening in some areas might have been caused by the rarity of undernutrition, as more than three-quarters of paediatricians stated that undernourished children were admitted less than once a month. However, this finding does not correspond with data on the prevalence of undernutrition (1)(2)(3), which indicates that roughly one in every ten hospitalised child in Europe suffers from undernutrition. This suggests that undernutrition is under-recognised.…”

“…We are aware that our conclusions are only valid for paediatric departments in secondary-level hospitals, which have been shown to differ from tertiary-level university-affiliated hospital departments in their nutritional management and prevalence of undernutrition (2,11). A lack of training and awareness was highlighted as the two most common barriers hindering nutritional screening.…”

“…Despite increasing awareness of the importance of nutritional support, recent studies have reported that roughly 10% of the hospitalised children in Europe are undernourished (1)(2)(3). Ten years ago, O' Connor et al described a number of barriers to appropriate nutritional assessment and management and these included a lack of accurate height-or weight-measuring equipment, under-recording of height and weight and the low rate of patients being referred to a dietician (4).…”

“…Ten years ago, O' Connor et al described a number of barriers to appropriate nutritional assessment and management and these included a lack of accurate height-or weight-measuring equipment, under-recording of height and weight and the low rate of patients being referred to a dietician (4). According to recent data, the number of nutritional interventions in hospitalised undernourished children has been disappointingly low (1)(2)(3).…”