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PERSPECTIVE article

Front. Nutr.
Sec. Clinical Nutrition
Volume 11 - 2024 | doi: 10.3389/fnut.2024.1483234

Protecting optimal childhood growth: systematic nutritional screening, assessment, and intervention for children at-risk of malnutrition

Provisionally accepted
Robert D. Murray Robert D. Murray 1*Sanaa Shaaban Sanaa Shaaban 2Mohammed Al Amrani Mohammed Al Amrani 3Wajeeh Aldekhail Wajeeh Aldekhail 4Faisal Alhaffaf Faisal Alhaffaf 5Abdulaziz O. Alharbi Abdulaziz O. Alharbi 6Ali Almehaidib Ali Almehaidib 4Yasir A. Al Suyfi Yasir A. Al Suyfi 7Muath AlTuraiki Muath AlTuraiki 8Ahmed Amin Ahmed Amin 9Mohammed Y. Hasosah Mohammed Y. Hasosah 10Musa Alkhormi Musa Alkhormi 6Ziyad T. Mirza Ziyad T. Mirza 11Rola Sleiman Rola Sleiman 3Ghassan Sukkar Ghassan Sukkar 12
  • 1 College of Medicine, The Ohio State University, Columbus, United States
  • 2 Ain Shams University, Cairo, Cairo, Egypt
  • 3 Research Centre, Dr Sulaiman Al Habib Medical Group, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia
  • 4 King Faisal Specialist Hospital and Research Centre, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia
  • 5 Prince Sultan Military Medical City, As Sulimaniyah, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia
  • 6 Hospital of Pediatrics, King Saud Medical City, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia
  • 7 Department of Pediatrics, Unaizah College of Medicine, Qassim University, Qassim, Al-Qassim, Saudi Arabia
  • 8 Department of Pediatrics, King Faisal Specialist Hospital and Research Center, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia
  • 9 Abbott (United Arab Emirates), Dubai, United Arab Emirates
  • 10 Children Health Center, King Abdullah International Medical Research Center (KAIMRC), Jeddah, Saudi Arabia
  • 11 King Fahd Armed Forces Hospital, Jeddah, Saudi Arabia
  • 12 College of Applied Medical Sciences-Jeddah, King Saud bin Abdulaziz University for Health Sciences, Jeddah, Saudi Arabia

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

    Background: In 2024, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia Advisory Board on Pediatric Nutrition (KSA-ABPN) reviewed childhood undernutrition in the Middle East. We sought to foster efficient nutritional care for infants and children at nutritional risk. Severe malnutrition due to starvation is rare in Saudi Arabia, so we focused on early recognition and treatment of children with mild growth impairment that forewarns risk for further nutritional decline. This paper summarizes our findings and introduces a recommended guide for nutritional screening, assessment, and follow-up interventions.The KSA-ABPN aimed to build an algorithm with pathways and tools to facilitate up-todate nutrition-care practices for infants and children. The algorithm is intended to encourage consistent professional training-for and use-of validated tools, adoption of standardized thresholds for intervention, and delivery of nutritional support. Consistent care will increase opportunities for comparative analyses of various treatment strategies and their health and cost outcomes.We developed a 4-stage algorithm for identifying and caring for children at nutritional risk: (i) screening for clinical risk factors and age-related growth measures, (ii) observation of malnutrition-related physical signs, diet history, and/or laboratory detection of evidence indicating specific nutrient deficiencies, (iii) assessment of the severity of nutritional deficit, and (iv) development of a patient-specific Nutrition Care Plan that includes diet counseling, supplementation, routine monitoring, and follow-up.By helping professionals identify nutritional risk and specific nutritional deficits in infants and children early in the clinical course, we seek to expand quality nutritional care and ensure that children grow and develop fully.

    Keywords: diet quality, mid-upper arm circumference (MUAC), pediatric, Risk Assessment, screening, undernutrition, Z-score

    Received: 19 Aug 2024; Accepted: 14 Oct 2024.

    Copyright: © 2024 Murray, Shaaban, Al Amrani, Aldekhail, Alhaffaf, Alharbi, Almehaidib, Al Suyfi, AlTuraiki, Amin, Hasosah, Alkhormi, Mirza, Sleiman and Sukkar. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

    * Correspondence: Robert D. Murray, College of Medicine, The Ohio State University, Columbus, United States

    Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.