Use of a 10 Points Visual Analogue Food Intake Scale for Children to Assess Intake: Prospective Study

Overview

In hospitalized children, undernutrition increases the length of hospitalization, aggravates the causal pathology, favors the occurrence of complications, and increases the cost of hospitalization. With a prevalence of 10 to 20%, undernutrition is therefore a major problem which, moreover, is largely under-diagnosed. The evaluation of food intake has historically been based on the evaluation of food consumption by means of a food card or a food survey during the last 24 hours. In adults, a rapid assessment tool has been developed, the SEFI® (Score Evaluation Facile des Ingestats), consisting of a visual analog scale (VAS) graduated from 0 to 10. It has been validated as being concordant with previous tools for the assessment of dietary intake in the general population and is now recommended for adults. It allows early identification of a risk of undernutrition when the score is \< 7/10. We propose to evaluate the correlation between this 10-point analog scale (SEFI) and ingesta in children in relation to recommended energy intakes for age and weight.

Data collection at the foot of the bed during hospitalization or after the consultation on a data collection form. Conventional admission of patients to the departments involved. Carrying out the study (questionnaire and measurements) in the room. It will not be necessary to move the patients. The weighing and measuring of patients is not different from the usual care carried out during an admission to hospital in the services concerned by the study. All anthropometric measurements correspond to the recommendations of good practice. Anthropometric measurements will be performed by the health care team. The dietary survey will be carried out by a dietician from the UTN or the pediatric team with an evaluation of the caloric intake at the time. The results will then be entered into the GENI software using the CIQUAL table in order to calculate the caloric intake (and the composition of trace elements and vitamins) according to standardized tables of food composition. The child will be accompanied by his or her parents for this survey. The child will be asked the following question: "On a scale of 0 to 10, if 0 is "in terms of quantity, I don't eat anything at all" and 10 is "I eat as usual", between 0 and 10 where do you stand today? The same question will be asked of the parent. The parent will be blind to the child's response. Blinding between the different assessments will be maintained as follows: the dietary survey will be conducted by a dietician blind to the SEFI scores, and the SEFI will be administered to the child and parents separately, by 2 different blind operators (childcare workers or assistant childcare workers), themselves blind to the dietary survey.