Objective:

to identify the factors related to the presence of hospital malnutrition (HM) in patients under five years of age hospitalized in a third level care unit.

Material and methods:

cohort study. Patients under five years of age hospitalized were included. The record identified age, sex, pathological history, reason for admission and nutritional status by calculating weight/age (W/A), height/age (H/A) and weight/height (W/H). The entire somatometry intake process was performed upon admission, and was repeated on days 2, 4 and 7 of follow-up. The HM was defined as a decrease of more than 0.25 standard deviations in the W/H after seven days of hospitalization.

Results:

eighty-three patients were identified. The reason for admission was non-surgical pathology in 77% (n = 64). Seventy per cent (n = 58) had underlying disease. At the time of admission, 66% (n = 55) presented malnutrition. A progressive decrease in the Z score of W/H was observed as hospitalization progressed (p < 0.001). An incidence of 67.5% of HM was identified. It was shown that the presence of malnutrition at admission of hospitalization increased the risk of HM (OR 2.9, 95% CI 1.05 to 8.10, p = 0.03). In patients with malnutrition from admission, an age younger than two years decreased the risk of HM (OR 0.093, 95% CI 0.009 to 0.959, p = 0.046), while the underlying disease increased the risk (OR 6.34, 95% CI 1.009 to 39.89, p = 0.049).

Conclusions:

the presence of malnutrition and underlying disease prior to admission were risk factors to present HM.

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