Nutritional Status of Under-Five Years Critically Ill Children at Pediatric Intensive Care Units | ||||
| Alexandria Scientific Nursing Journal | ||||
| Volume 27, Issue 2, June 2025, Page 28-41 PDF (401.62 K) | ||||
| Document Type: Research articles | ||||
| DOI: 10.21608/asalexu.2025.429792 | ||||
 View on SCiNiTO | ||||
| Authors | ||||
| Mariam Saad Mohamed Mohamed* 1; Yomn Youssef Sabry2; Manal Abdel Malik Antonios3; Doaa Tawfik , Mohamed4; Eman Arafa Badr5 | ||||
| 1Demonstrator Pediatric Nursing department, Faculty of Nursing, Alexandria University, Egypt. | ||||
| 2Professor Emeritus , Pediatric Nursing department, Faculty of Nursing, Alexandria University, Egypt. | ||||
| 3Professor Pediatrics Department, Faculty of Medicine, Alexandria University, Egypt. | ||||
| 4Lecturer of Nutrition Department of Nutrition, High Institute of Public Health, Alexandria University, Egypt. | ||||
| 5Lecturer in Pediatric Nursing Pediatric Nursing department, Faculty of Nursing, Alexandria University, Egypt. | ||||
| Abstract | ||||
| care units with critical illnesses. These children are mainly admitted with malnutrition exacerbated through their hospitalization. Malnutrition stands out for its clinical importance and is associated with high rates of morbidity and mortality. Consequently, it needs to be detected as early as possible Aim: This study aimed to identify the nutritional status of under -five years critically ill children in Pediatric Intensive Care Units. Design: A longitudinal descriptive research design was used. Setting: This study was conducted at Pediatric Intensive Care Units of Alexandria University Children's Hospital at El-Shatby and Smouha, and El-Raml Children's Hospital (Winget), Alexandria, Egypt. Subjects: A convenient sample of 120 under-five years critically ill children who were recently admitted to PICUs within the first 24 hours. Tools: Two tools were used to collect the necessary data which are characteristics and clinical data of critically ill children record, and nutritional assessment of critically ill children’s assessment record. Nutritional assessment was done within 24 hours of admissions, after one week and two weeks of hospitalization. Results: The study findings revealed that nearly one-third of children (32.5%) categorized as severely underweight at PICU admission and after one week, while this percentage increased to slightly less than half of them (48.3%) after two weeks from their PICU hospitalization. Additionally, it was recorded that 76.7% of the children had anemia on admission and slightly decreased to 63.9% and 72.3% after one week and after two weeks of their PICU hospitalization, respectively. Moreover, hyperproteinemia was detected among 42.9 % of the children at their PICU admission. On the other hand, it was recorded that 59% and 60.7% had hypoproteinemia after one week and two weeks of hospitalization, respectively. It was observed that some clinical findings were associated with nutritional inadequacies among most critically ill children at admission, after one week and after two weeks of PICU stay namely dry and thin hair, skin pallor and dry conjunctiva. Conclusion: It can be concluded that nutritional status of underfive years critically ill children was affected on PICU admission and worsened during their hospitalization. Recommendations: It is recommended continuous assessment and monitoring nutritional status of under-five years critically ill children from PICU admission and throughout their hospitalization for early detection of malnutrition and proper nutritional management. | ||||
| Keywords | ||||
| Critically Ill Children; Nutritional Status; Units; Under-Five Years children | ||||
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