Hospital-related undernutrition in children: still an often unrecognized and undertreated problem

Aim To evaluate the nutritional status of hospitalized children in Belgian hospitals and to analyse the impact of undernutrition on the degree of weight loss and duration of hospitalization. Methods In each hospital (one tertiary and three secondary hospitals), 100 consecutively hospitalized children were eligible for inclusion. Of these, 379 were included for analysis. Body weight, length and mid‐upper arm circumference were measured at admission and body weight also at discharge. Results The median (range) age was 2.1 (0.8–17) years. On admission, 29 (7.7%) children were chronically malnourished and, depending on the parameter, between 2.4% and 9.8% acutely undernourished, while 12.1% had at least one subnormal parameter. Median (range) duration of hospitalization was four (1–64) days. Median (range) weight change was 0.0% (−15.6% – +13.9%). Weight loss of >2% was significantly (p