National malnutrition screening days in hospitalised children in The Netherlands

Objective: Nationwide prevalence studies on malnutrition in hospitalised children have not been done. This study aimed to investigate the prevalence of malnutrition of all newly admitted children in The Netherlands during 3 consecutive days. Design: Prospective observational study. Setting: Paediatric wards of 44 hospitals (7 academic and 37 general). Participants: A total of 424 children aged >= 30 days and hospitalised for >= 1 day were included, 63% male, 86% non-white. Median age was 3.5 years and median hospital stay was 2 days. Main outcome measures: SD scores < - 2 for weight for height and height for age were considered to indicate acute and chronic malnutrition, respectively. Results: Overall 19% of the children had acute and/or chronic malnutrition at admission (academic 22% and general 17%). The proportion of children with chronic malnutrition was significantly higher in academic hospitals (14% vs 6%). Logistic regression analysis allowing for age, underlying disease, ethnicity, surgery and type of centre showed a significant relation between the presence of malnutrition at admission and underlying disease (odds ratio (OR) 2.2). For chronic malnutrition both underlying disease and non-white ethnicity were significantly related to a higher prevalence (OR 3.7 and OR 2.8, respectively). Multiple regression analysis showed that children with acute malnutrition stayed on average 45% longer (95% CI 7% to 95%) in the hospital than children without such malnutrition. Conclusions: This unique nationwide study shows that 19% of children admitted to Dutch hospitals are malnourished at admission. This high prevalence underlines the need for routine screening and treatment of malnutrition in hospitalised children.