Nutrition assessment in Primary Care, is it possible?

The primary care team, conceived as the pediatrician and the nurse, is the main piece for detecting nutritional impairment through the preventing program attendance, which operational framework is based essentially in periodic health exams.

Using nutritional assessment tools, we can detect early malnutrition signs, either by excess or defect, as well as the degree of categorization of malnutrition. The nutritional assessment will be also useful for applying forward the strategies needed to approach the problem. After diagnosis has been reached, subsequent revisions become basic for controlling the correct development and nutritional status.

The nutritional assessment will be carried out with the results obtained from three sources: the medical history, the physical examination and the evaluation of anthropometric measurements. The medical history will find out essential data regarding personal and family history, the child development in different areas, and the presence of accompanying symptoms, as well as the energy intake assessment. The physical examination will find out information about the nutritional status by direct observation, playing special interest on physical and pubertal development. Finally, the anthropometric measurements as weight, height and different circumferences and skinfolds, will allow us to get a very complete idea of the nutritional status, avoiding more complex and expensive tests.