Data from the Brazilian Survey of Pediatric Oncology Nutrition: Multicenter, Hospital-Based Study

Abstract

Introduction: Malnutrition is found in children with cancer and is associated with negative clinical outcomes. Objective: To describe the prevalence of inadequate nutritional status of children and adolescents with malignant neoplasm at hospital admission in childhood cancer reference centers in Brazil. Method: Cross-sectional study nested in a multicenter, hospital-based cohort study. The probabilistic sample was carried out in two stages in each stratum by macro-region using the probability method proportional to the size with one year of collection in each institution. Clinical, anthropometric, body composition data and the Pediatric Subjective Global Nutritional Assessment (SGNA) questionnaire were collected from 13 reference institutions within 48 hours of hospital admission, from March 2018 to August 2019. Results: The study totaled 723 patients in the 5 regions of Brazil. The prevalence of moderate and severe malnutrition was 25.9% in the age group of 2 to 5 years, 40.1% in 5 to 10 years and 39.7% in 10 to 19 years, according to the SGNA. According to the Body Mass/Age Index  (BMI/I), thinness and marked thinness totaled 13%, risk of overweight, overweight and obesity showed a prevalence of 26.7% from 2 to 5 years, 24.9% from 5 to 10 years and 25.7% from 10 to 19 years. Conclusion: There was a high prevalence of nutritional inadequacy by the SGNA, suggesting that malnutrition can be underdiagnosed when using only the BMI/I, strengthening the need to use complementary methods in the nutritional assessment of children with cancer.