ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Nutr.
Sec. Nutrition and Metabolism
Volume 12 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fnut.2025.1647870
This article is part of the Research TopicClinical Research on Nutrition and Children's Health: Focusing on Genetics, Metabolism, and the Gut MicrobiomeView all articles
The Relationship Between Nutritional Status and Prealbumin Levels in Children with Loss of Appetite and Iron Deficiency: A Prospective Cross-Sectional Study
Provisionally accepted
- 1Istanbul Atlas University, İstanbul, Türkiye
- 2Izmir Katip Celebi Universitesi Tip Fakultesi, Izmir, Türkiye
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Background: Prealbumin, a hepatic protein with a short half-life, has emerged as a sensitive biomarker for assessing nutritional status. This study aimed to evaluate the relationship between nutritional status and prealbumin levels in children experiencing loss of appetite due to iron deficiency, and to compare the diagnostic value of prealbumin with established nutritional indices. Methods: A total of 260 children aged 2-15 years were enrolled and categorized into four groups: control (n=65), appetite loss only (n=65), iron deficiency only (n=65), and both conditions (n=65). Nutritional status was assessed using laboratory biomarkers and indices such as the Controlling Nutritional Status (CONUT) score, Prognostic Nutritional Index (PNI), and Nutritional Risk Index (NRI). Prealbumin levels were measured via ELISA. Results:Prealbumin levels were significantly lower in all patient groups compared to controls (p < 0.001). Prealbumin showed strong positive correlations with total cholesterol (r = 0.528), albumin (r = 0.489), and PNI (r = 0.489), and a strong negative correlation with the CONUT score (r = -0.546) (all p < 0.001). ROC analysis demonstrated that prealbumin had high diagnostic accuracy in distinguishing appetite loss (AUC = 0.911) and iron deficiency (AUC = 0.892). Logistic regression confirmed that prealbumin was significantly associated with both conditions (p < 0.001), whereas other indices (CONUT, PNI, NRI) were not. Conclusion:While appetite loss is a clinically reported symptom, reduced prealbumin levels reflect the underlying nutritional impact of this condition. Prealbumin is a sensitive and reliable biomarker for assessing nutritional deterioration associated with both appetite loss and iron deficiency in children and outperforms commonly used nutritional indices. Its use may improve early recognition and management of nutritional risk in pediatric populations. Further research is needed to explore the diagnostic and prognostic value of nutritional indices (CONUT, PNI, NRI) in children.
Keywords: Children, Loss of appetite, Controlling nutritional status, Prealbumin, Prognostic nutritional index, Nutritional risk index
Received: 16 Jun 2025; Accepted: 29 Aug 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Okuyan, Durmus and Uzun. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Omer Okuyan, Istanbul Atlas University, İstanbul, Türkiye
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