Effect of Early Nutritional Assessment and Nutritional Support on Immune Function and Clinical Prognosis of Critically Ill Children

Abstract

The aim of this study was to study the effect of early nutritional assessment and nutritional support on immune function and clinical prognosis of critically ill children. 90 critically ill children at the same level of severity admitted to the pediatric intensive care unit (PICU) of our hospital (June 2019–June 2020) were chosen as the research objects and were equally separated into the experimental group and the control group by the random number table method. The children in the control group were admitted to the PICU according to the routine process, and the nutritional support was provided to the malnourished ones. After admission to the PICU, the children in the experimental group were given nutritional assessment, nutritional risk screening, and nutritional support according to the screening results. The PICU stay time and total hospitalization time of the experimental group were obviously shorter than those of the control group ( $P<0.05$ ), the hospitalization expenses of the experimental group were obviously lower than those of the control group ( $P<0.05$ ), the clinical outcomes and immune function of the experimental group were obviously better than those of the control group ( $P<0.05$ ), and the nutrition indicators of the experimental group were obviously higher than those of the control group ( $P<0.05$ ). Early nutritional assessment and nutritional support can effectively improve the immune function and reduce the incidence of adverse clinical outcomes of critically ill children, which are worthy of clinical application and promotion.