Nutritional screening tool for critically ill children: a systematic review

Context Nutritional screening tools (NSTs) are used to identify patients who are at risk of nutritional status (NS) deterioration and associated clinical outcomes. Several NSTs have been developed for hospitalized children; however, none of these were specifically developed for Pediatric Intensive Care Unit (PICU) patients. Objective A systematic review of studies describing the development, application, and validation of NSTs in hospitalized children was conducted to critically appraise their role in PICU patients. Data Sources PubMed, Embase, Web of Science, Scopus, SciELO, LILACS, and Google Scholar were searched from inception to December 11, 2020. Data Extraction The review included 103 studies that applied NSTs at hospital admission. The NST characteristics collected included the aims, clinical setting, variables, and outcomes. The suitability of the NSTs in PICU patients was assessed based on a list of variables deemed relevant for this population. Data Analysis From 19 NSTs identified, 13 aimed to predict NS deterioration. Five NSTs were applied in PICU patients, but none was validated for this population. NSTs did not include clinical, NS, laboratory, or dietary variables that were deemed relevant for the PICU population. Conclusion None of the available NSTs were found to be suitable for critically ill children, so a new NST should be developed for this population. AQ6 Systematic Review Registration PROSPERO registration no. CRD42020167898.