Abstract
Objectives:
To validate the Screening Tool for the Assessment of Malnutrition in Paediatrics (STAMP) in paediatric spinal cord injuries (SCIs) patients admitted to the tertiary SCI centre.
Methods:
children’s baseline clinical data, anthropometric measurements and STAMP score were assessed on admission. The validity of STAMP was assessed by (i) comparison with a full dietetic assessment (criterion validity); (ii) comparison with generic paediatric screening tools: the Paediatric Yorkhill Malnutrition Score (PYMS; concurrent validity); and (iii) completion of an additional STAMP to assess inter- and intra-rater reliability. The agreement was assessed using Cohen’s κ-statistics.
Results:
Fifty-one children were screened by STAMP. The prevalence of undernutrition risk was 58.8%. STAMP had moderate agreement with dietitian assessment (κ: 0.507) and a fair agreement with PYMS (κ: 0.314). The STAMP had substantial reliability (inter-rater reliability: κ: 0.752; intra-rater reliability: κ: 0.635). When compared with dietetic assessment as a reference standard, STAMP had a sensitivity of 83.3%, specificity of 66.7% and an overall agreement of 76.5%.
Conclusion:
The present study shows that undernutrition is common in children with SCI. The STAMP is an acceptable (valid and reliable) tool to identify paediatric SCI patients at risk of undernutrition.
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Acknowledgements
We thank the patients and staffs in St Francis Ward, especially Lynsey Spillman for reviewing the manuscript, Karen O’Donnell, Sara OShea, Sarah Slatter, Katie Wiseman, Kevin Yeneralski, Sally Robertson, Sandra Stoks, Christine McMurry, Linda Dean, Caroline Kader for STAMP screening, Ebba Bergstrom and Kirsten Hart for height estimation and Pauline Bateman from Medical Records at the National Spinal Injuries Centre at Stoke Mandeville Hospital. We also thank Professor John Reilly, University of Glasgow and Dr Joan Gandy, The British Dietetic Association, for their comments on protocol development. This study was supported by the Waterloo Foundation and Abbott Nutrition.
Author contributions
SW—protocol development, data collection, data analysis, manuscript preparation; AG—protocol development, clinical supervision, manuscript revision; SPH—statistical supervision, manuscript revision; GG—Academic supervision, manuscript revision; AF—Academic supervision, manuscript revision.
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Part of the study data were presented at the International Spinal Cord Society annual meeting in September 2012 and at the British Association of Parenteral and Enteral Nutrition annual meeting in November 2011.
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Wong, S., Graham, A., Hirani, S. et al. Validation of the Screening Tool for the Assessment of Malnutrition in Paediatrics (STAMP) in patients with spinal cord injuries (SCIs). Spinal Cord 51, 424–429 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1038/sc.2012.166
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/sc.2012.166
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