Comparative evaluation of nutritional risk screening tools in hospitalized children with acute gastroenteritis.
PYMS best identified malnutrition in children hospitalized with gastroenteritis
Comparative evaluation of nutritional risk screening tools in hospitalized children with acute gastroenteritis.
Malnutrition is common in hospitalized children with acute gastroenteritis, yet the optimal nutritional risk screening tool for this population remains unclear.
This study aimed to compare the diagnostic performance and clinical utility of STRONGkids, PYMS, and STAMP in identifying malnutrition among hospitalized children with acute gastroenteritis.
In this multicenter retrospective study, children hospitalized with acute gastroenteritis between January 2024 and January 2026 were identified from electronic medical records at admission.
PYMS most accurately distinguished malnourished from well-nourished children, AUROC 1.0 is perfect
Of the 855 children included, 82 were malnourished and 773 had normal nutritional status.
Compared with children with normal nutritional status, malnourished children were younger and had more vomiting and diarrhea episodes, longer hospital stay, higher screening scores, and more severe dehydration.
PYMS performed significantly better than both STRONGkids and STAMP, and STAMP also outperformed STRONGkids.
At the optimal cut-off of 3, PYMS had the highest sensitivity, specificity, Youden index, and negative predictive value.
Among the three screening tools, PYMS demonstrated the best overall performance for identifying malnutrition in hospitalized children with acute gastroenteritis and may be the most suitable tool for early nutritional risk screening in this population.