Malnutrition among Hospitalized Children in the United States: A 2012-2019 Update of Annual Trends

BACKGROUND

Malnutrition is associated with adverse clinical outcomes and increased health care utilization for hospitalized children. Yet pediatric malnutrition often goes undiagnosed and national prevalence research in this population is scarce.

OBJECTIVE

The aim was to assess change in the coded diagnosis of malnutrition (CDM) among US hospitalized children given increased awareness of the need for improved recognition and standardized diagnosis.

DESIGN

Retrospective, cross-sectional analysis using nationally representative data from the Nationwide Inpatient Sample.

PARTICIPANTS/SETTING

Our sample was 13.2 million hospitalizations from 2012 to 2019 among pediatric patients between age 1 month and 17 years.

MAIN OUTCOME MEASURE

CDM using International Classification of Diseases Ninth and 10th Revision-Clinical Modification diagnosis codes.

STATISTICAL ANALYSES

Descriptive statistics and sampling weights were used to estimate the national frequency and prevalence of CDM. Temporal trends in CDM overall and stratified by age, race/ethnicity, and hospital type were analyzed using joinpoint regression.

RESULTS

CDM prevalence increased from 3.9% in 2012 to 6.4% in 2019. During this period, failure to thrive decreased from 40.6% to 23.3% of all cases with concomitant increases in the diagnosis of protein-calorie malnutrition and children identified with more than one malnutrition subtype. Differences in CDM diagnoses are evident by hospital type, race/ethnicity, and age of the patient.

CONCLUSIONS

Although pediatric malnutrition continues to be underdiagnosed in hospital settings, this study demonstrates improvement over time. There continues to be a need for continued professional education regarding best practices for diagnosis to improve health care provider knowledge and self-efficacy on this topic, especially in nonteaching hospitals.

Clinical Leadership and Innovation Help Achieve Malnutrition Quality Improvement Initiative Success

Malnutrition is a frequent, but often overlooked clinical issue that can significantly impact patient health outcomes and thus has been identified as a critical target for quality improvement. One recent advancement helping build momentum in quality improvement is the Malnutrition Quality Improvement Initiative (MQii). Frameworks like the MQii need clinical leadership to achieve success. A new taxonomy for clinical dietetics leadership describes five components of leadership behaviors-change, patient focus, self-direct, technical, and relationship-that align with the MQii tools and resources. Qualitative interviews were conducted with four clinical nutrition leaders from three health care systems or institutions who were part of the 2018-2019 MQii Learning Collaborative and had reported success and innovations using the MQii framework. The clinical dietetics leadership taxonomy was applied to describe how the clinical nutrition leaders demonstrated and supported leadership opportunities for clinical nutrition staff through implementation of the MQii. FUNDING/SUPPORT: Publication of this supplement was supported by Abbott. The Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics does not receive funding for the MQii. Avalere Health's work to support the MQii was funded by Abbott.

The Malnutrition Quality Improvement Initiative: A Multiyear Partnership Transforms Care

The Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics, representing credentialed nutrition and dietetics practitioners-registered dietitian nutritionists (RDNs) and nutrition and dietetics technicians, registered, and students and interns and professionals holding nutrition and dietetics undergraduate and advanced degrees-and Avalere Health, a Washington, DC-based strategic advisory services firm, have led the charge in closing malnutrition gaps with the Malnutrition Quality Improvement Initiative (MQii), a national nutrition-focused quality improvement initiative. The initiative's journey from 2013-2019 utilized technical advisors and stakeholders to improve care and outcomes for hospitalized adults age 65 and older with a series of innovations. These innovations include the development of the first malnutrition electronic clinical quality measures (eCQMs) and a complementary interdisciplinary quality improvement toolkit and establishing the first nutrition-focused national Learning Collaborative. MQii's vision for future directions and applications in 2020 and beyond will explore partnerships to include the malnutrition eCQM in available clinical data registries. Qualified Clinical Data Registries will provide a pathway for collecting nutrition data relevant to RDNs because as of 2020, payments for Medicare Part B nutrition services and quality improvement are available for eligible RDNs participating in the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services Quality Payment Program. The MQii Toolkit's technical specification manuals, data dictionaries, and implementation guides will help RDNs integrate the malnutrition quality measures into existing electronic health records and lead nutrition data collection and analysis. RDNs' continued advancement with information technology leaders to incorporate terminology and clinical standards into electronic health record platforms will provide for malnutrition data transfer across care settings. FUNDING/SUPPORT: Publication of this supplement was supported by Abbott. The Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics does not receive funding for the MQii. Avalere Health's work to support the MQii was funded by Abbott.