Biomedical risk of undernutrition in hospitalized children

Abstract

Introduction: Hospital undernutrition is an important health problem, both in developed and underdeveloped countries. Identifying it is essential to avoid or minimize the impact on clinical evolution, complications and increase in hospital stay. Objective: The biomedical risk of malnutrition in hospitalized patients of the Department of Pediatrics and Child Care of the Military Hospital "Dr. Carlos Arvelo "in the period of September-November 2016. Methods: descriptive, prospective, transversal design; an instrument for Biomedical Risk of Malnutrition in children and adolescents, previously validated for the Venezuelan population, was applied to hospitalized patients, through data recorded in the clinical history and questioning of representatives and / or caregivers. Each weight category was assigned a weighting, according to its greater or lesser impact on nutritional status. The final score allowed to characterize the child according to the risk. Results: A total of 60 children were evaluated, where 60% of females predominated and 61.6% of patients over 2 years of age. Of the most frequent population, 55% had acute diarrhea. Among the most frequent chronic diseases, asthma (21.6%) was reported, and acute pneumonia (30%). The patients who reported the highest biomedical risk of malnutrition were those over 2 years of age. Conclusion: There are many biomedical factors and indicators identified as determinants of hospital malnutrition risk in the different scales, its frequency and importance varies in context of the study population, associated morbidity, health and socioeconomic conditions