Design Child-friendly Food Guide Based on Nutritional Risk Assessment of Pediatric Inpatients

Abstract

Background: However, the hospital malnutrition's prevalence is high; this condition is ignored and, as a result, is not treated. The first step in fighting malnutrition is to know how to identify patients at higher risk of suffering from this condition by using risk screening tools. The aim of the present study was to design child-friendly food guide based on nutritional risk assessment of pediatric inpatients. Method: In this exploratory cross-sectional study, one hundred children in medical departments affiliated to Mansoura University Children Hospital, Egypt was assessed as regarding their admission and discharge weight and height of the body, the body mass index/kg/m2, and biochemical analysis of hemoglobin and serum albumin. A Screening Tool for Assessing Malnutrition in Pediatrics (STAMP) has been applied in order to also assess pediatric inpatients' overall risk of malnutrition. Furthermore, the perspective of hospitalized children/their mothers about the hospital introduced food habits and meals pattern were surveyed. Results: Slightly less than half of the studied children were males and the large percent of the hospitalized children's mothers were highly educated. According to STAMP score, all studied children were considered to be at risk for malnutrition with the underlying diseases were related to neurological or general medical disorders among the largest. The study findings also revealed that the majority of participants tried to escape the delivered hospital meals and reported their needs for a dietary guide contains healthy food varieties to overcome the risk of under-nutrition related to children's hospitalization. Conclusion: every effort must be made to identify children at risk of developing under-nutrition upon admission in order to provide necessary nutritional support for them.