Malnutrition and Nutrition Support in Latin American PICUs: The Nutrition in PICU (NutriPIC) Study
Santiago Campos-Miño, Artur Figueiredo-Delgado, Patricia Zárate, Patricia Zamberlan, Eliana Muñoz-Benavides, Jorge A. Coss-Bu,- Critical Care and Intensive Care Medicine
- Pediatrics, Perinatology and Child Health
OBJECTIVES:
To characterize the nutritional status of children admitted to Latin American (LA) PICUs and to describe the adequacy of nutrition support in reference to contemporary international recommendations.
DESIGN:
The Nutrition in PICU (NutriPIC) study was a combined point-prevalence study of malnutrition carried out on 1 day in 2021 (Monday 8 November) and a retrospective cohort study of adequacy of nutritional support in the week preceding.
SETTING:
Four-one PICUs in 13 LA countries.
PATIENTS:
Patients already admitted to the PICU of 1 month to 18 years old on the study day were included in the point-prevalence study. For the retrospective arm, we included patients receiving nutritional support on the study day and with a PICU length of stay (LOS) greater than or equal to 72 hours. Exclusion criteria were being a neonate, conditions that precluded accurate anthropometric measurements, and PICU LOS greater than 14 days.
INTERVENTIONS:
None.
MEASUREMENTS AND MAIN RESULTS:
Of 316 patients screened, 5 did not meet age criteria. There were 191 of 311 patients who were included in the point-prevalence study and underwent anthropometric evaluation. Underweight and length for age less than –2
CONCLUSIONS:
The NutriPIC study found that in 2021 malnutrition was highly prevalent especially in PICU admissions of less than 24 months old. Retrospectively, the 7-day median nutritional support appears to meet both energy and protein requirements.