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Identifying pediatric malnutrition using STRONGkids

Pediatric malnutrition can be detrimental to patient outcomes and result in decreased lean body mass, developmental and intellectual delays, increased risk of infections, delayed wound healing, increased mortality, longer hospital stay, higher cost of care, and poor quality of life. Despite this, pediatric malnutrition is reported to be largely underrecognized and underdocumented. Pediatric patients with chronic illnesses, including children with congenital heart disease, cystic fi brosis, malignancies, gastrointestinal diseases, or neuromuscular diseases, and children receiving dialysis have higher incidences of malnutrition. Screening for malnutrition risk can facilitate the identifi cation of at-risk patients and result in an earlier referral to a registered dietitian. Early identifi cation of malnutrition risk helps improve patient management and clinical outcomes. This article describes a quality improvement project comparing a hospital’s current malnutrition screening practice with a validated pediatric malnutrition risk screening tool to determine their effi ciency and reliability in identifying patients with increased malnutrition risk at the time of hospital admission.