https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7820-6610
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ABSTRACT
Objectives
To investigate the reproducibility, stability, internal consistency and the ability to grade malnutrition of Subjective Global Nutritional Assessment (SGNA) in outpatient children with cerebral palsy.
Methods
This was a part of a larger, cross-sectional study (ChiCTR2000033869) at the outpatient of a tertiary hospital. The recruitment and data collection of children with Cerebral Palsy aged from 1 to 18 years were from August 2020 to March 2021. The concurrent validity, inter-rater reliability, test–retest reliability and internal consistency of SGNA were tested. To analyze data, specificity, sensitivity, Kendall coefficient, Cohen’s kappa coefficient, Spearman coefficient and Cronbach’s α coefficient were used.
Results
The agreement between SGNA and anthropometric data was moderate to strong (k = 0.540–0.821). The sensitivity (71.70% to 89.74%) and specificity (77.67% to 91.03%) of SGNA to identify participants with z-score ≤−2 were good. The sensitivity of SGNA to identify participants with weight for age z-score ≤−3 was poor (30.00%). The interrater reliability (k = 0.703) and test–retest reliability (k = 0.779) were good. The item of edema was with poor agreement to SGNA nutritional grades (rs = 0.072), and after deleting it from SGNA, the Cronbach’s α coefficient of SGNA increased from 0.736 to 0.871.
Findings
SGNA is good at identifying malnourished outpatient children with cerebral palsy, with excellent reproducibility and short-time stability. However, the ability to grade malnutrition is unsatisfactory. For further application in this group, a more appropriate item should be designed to replace the item of edema.
Acknowledgements
We are indebted to the participant families and children for their valuable time and commitment; and Lingxia Sun (MS, RD, CNSC Affiliations: Nestle Health Science, China) for her support in nutritional counseling.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).
Author contributions
K.S. Xu conceptualized the idea, designed the research and revised the manuscript. T.T. Peng wrote the manuscript with the assistance of Y.T. Zhao and H. Lu. T.T. Peng and Y.T. Zhao collected the data. J.L. Li and H.M. Tang assisted with participant recruitment. Statistical analysis was completed by C.Q. Fu. Figures and tables were completed by S.Y. Huang. All authors were involved in the final reviews of the manuscript.
Data availability statement
The datasets used and analyzed during the current study are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.
Ethics approval
Ethical approval was obtained Guangzhou Women and Children’s Medical center (ethics review No.202029601).
Correction Statement
This article has been republished with minor changes. These changes do not impact the academic content of the article.
Additional information
Funding
Notes on contributors
Tingting Peng
Tingting Peng, Yiting Zhao, Chaoqiong Fu, Shiya Huang and Hongyu Zhou are currently doing their research in Guangzhou Women and Children’s Medical Center, Guangzhou Medical University, Guangzhou, People’s Republic of China.
Jinling Li
Jinling Li works as a clinician in the department of rehabilitation in Guangzhou Women and Children’s Medical Center, Guangzhou Medical University, Guangzhou, People’s Republic of China.
Hongmei Tang
Hongmei Tang works as a clinician in the department of rehabilitation in Guangzhou Women and Children’s Medical Center, Guangzhou Medical University, Guangzhou, People’s Republic of China. She received the Ph.D. degree in Southern Medical University, Guangzhou, People’s Republic of China.
Lu He
Lu He works in the department of rehabilitation in Guangzhou Women and Children’s Medical Center, Guangzhou Medical University, Guangzhou, People’s Republic of China.
Kaishou Xu
Kaishou Xu is the Director of Rehabilitation Department & Professor of Pediatrics of Guangzhou Women and Children’s Medical Center, Guangzhou Medical University, Guangzhou, People’s Republic of China. He received the Ph.D. degree in Southern Medical University, Guangzhou, People’s Republic of China.