Interest of a Visual Scale for Evaluating Food Portions as a Screening Tool for Nutritional Risk in Pediatrics (EFImôme)

In current practice, there are various nutritional risk scores and diagnostic tools which are used in both inpatient and outpatient settings,however, in some cases, these tools cannot be used due to lack of data.

That's why a tool that doesn't require any anthropometric parameters, such as a visual food intake scale, could be useful to for medical and paramedical staff. In this way, a larger proportion of the paediatric population could benefit from nutritional screening.

Study Overview

• Status: Completed
• Conditions: Undernutrition

Detailed Description

HAS defines undernutrition as a state of nutritional imbalance, characterized by a negative energy and/or protein balance. This negative balance may be linked to a deficit in isolated intake and/or an increase in energy and/or protein expenditure.

In current practice, there are various nutritional risk scores and diagnostic tools which are used in both inpatient and outpatient settings. Practitioners can use discs to quickly and easily determine BMI, which corresponds to the ratio of Weight (Kg) / Height² (m). However, in some cases, these tools cannot be used due to lack of data.

That's why a tool that doesn't require any anthropometric parameters could be useful to for medical and paramedical staff. In this way, a larger proportion of the paediatric population could benefit from nutritional screening.

In adults, a visual food intake scale exists and has been validated for screening for nutritional risk. The hypothesis of this study is that the visual food intake scale could be a good tool for screening for nutritional risk in paediatrics

• Study Type: Observational
• Enrollment (Actual): 100

Contacts and Locations

Study Locations

• France
  • Toulouse, France, 31059
    • CHU Toulouse

Participation Criteria

Eligibility Criteria

• Ages Eligible for Study: Child
• Accepts Healthy Volunteers: No

• Sampling Method: Non-Probability Sample

Study Population

Patients with a scheduled hospitalization, according to the day hospital scheduling list, will be proposed to participate in the study

Description

Inclusion Criteria:

• Child able to be weighed and measured
• Family with Internet access and telephone number
• Child and at least one parent present during day hospitalization,
• Child able to respond to the SEFI® scale and having completed the 3-day food intake at home

Exclusion Criteria:

• Children and/or parents with comprehension and/or communication difficulties
• Children with any pathological condition making interpretation of results difficult from the investigator's point of view
• Children receiving nutritional support: enteral and parenteral nutrition.
• Child with nutritional follow-up

Study Plan

How is the study designed?

Number of groups / cohorts

1

Cohorts and Interventions

Group / Cohort

interview with the dietician; Initially, parent(s) and child will be interviewed together, details of the dietary record, as well as the data needed to calculate the nutritional risk score will be obtained. The interview will then be only with the child, he will be asked to determine, on his/her own, the portion of food he/she thinks he/she ate the previous evening, using the SEFI score. Finally, one of the two parents will determine, on their own, the portion of food they think their child ate the previous evening, using the SEFI score.

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure	Measure Description	Time Frame
Evaluation of the SEFI scale as a screening tool for child's nutritional risk.	The correlation between the self evaluation of food intake (SEFI) scale, with scores from 0 to 10, indicating the presence of malnutrition score if score is inferior to 7 or absence of malnutrition if score superior to 7/10, and the STRONGkids score will be evaluated	Day 1

Collaborators and Investigators

• Sponsor: University Hospital, Toulouse
• Investigators: Principal Investigator: Céline BARDE, University Hospital, Toulouse

Study record dates

Study Major Dates

• Study Start (Actual): July 6, 2020
• Primary Completion (Actual): October 6, 2022
• Study Completion (Actual): October 6, 2022

Study Registration Dates

• First Submitted: August 29, 2023
• First Submitted That Met QC Criteria: August 29, 2023
• First Posted (Estimated): September 6, 2023

Study Record Updates

• Last Update Posted (Estimated): September 6, 2023
• Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria: August 29, 2023
• Last Verified: August 1, 2023

More Information

Terms related to this study

• Keywords: screening; diagnostic; undernutrition
• Additional Relevant MeSH Terms: Nutrition Disorders; Malnutrition
• Other Study ID Numbers: RC31/20/0059

Plan for Individual participant data (IPD)

• Plan to Share Individual Participant Data (IPD)?: NO

Drug and device information, study documents

• Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated drug product: No
• Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated device product: No