Validation of the Screening Tool for the Assessment of Malnutrition in Paediatrics (STAMP) in patients with spinal cord injuries (SCIs).

Objective: 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%.

Conclusions: 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.