Clinical significance of nutritional risk screening tool for hospitalised children with acute burn injuries: a cross-sectional study

BackgroundWe assessed the nutritional risks among children hospitalised with acute burn injuries and their associated clinical outcomes using three nutritional risk screening (NRS) tools: Screening Tool for Risk of Impaired Nutritional Status and Growth (STRONG(KIDS)), Pediatric Yorkhill Malnutrition Score (PYMS) and Screening Tool for the Assessment for Malnutrition in Pediatrics (STAMP). MethodsThis prospective cross-sectional study was conducted from October 2015 to November 2016, in a regional burn centre. Patients were screened by two independent observers, using the three NRS tools. ResultsA total of 100 children aged 3 months to 16.5 years were included. STRONG(KIDS) identified 16% of patients as having high risk, with being identified 45% by PYMS and 44% by STAMP. After adjustment for confounding factors in multivariate regression analysis, patients in the high-risk group had significantly longer median (SD) lengths of stay [medium versus high risk: STRONG(KIDS), 9.5 (6.6) versus 15.0 (24.2) days; PYMS, 8.5 (4.4) versus 13.0 (16.1) days; STAMP, 9.0 (5.7) versus 11.0 (17.4) days] and greater median (SD) weight loss [medium versus high risk: STRONG(KIDS,) 0.15 (0.8) versus -0.35 (0.8) kg; STAMP, 0.5 (0.7) versus 0 (0.1) kg] than patients in the medium-risk group (P < 0.05). The strengths of agreement in the nutritional risk classification between the two observers were good ( for STRONG(KIDS) = 0.61; PYMS = 0.79; STAMP = 0.75) (P < 0.01). ConclusionsThe STRONG(KIDS), PYMS and STAMP tools could be useful and practical for determining which hospitalised children with acute burn injuries will need additional nutritional intervention.