Nutritional assessment should be performed for all children younger than 5 years at the level of primary healthcare centers and outpatient clinics

The gap

Evidence profile

Sourced from the future work and recommendations of the source papers, classified as general, drawn from work published between 2025 and 2026, spanning 2 journals. Those papers have been cited 14 times in total.

Supporting evidence — 3 representative gaps

• How Is U.S. Food-Insecurity Related to Dietary Quality? A Scoping Review to Inform Nutrition Security Across the Lifespan (2026) · Nutrients · doi

  A major need for future research is the coverage of underrepresented groups, in- cluding infants, pregnant and lactating women, and older adults. Particular attention to mechanisms such as the relationship or impact of food-insecurity on breast milk quality and nutrient composition, as well as nutrient absorption and utilization in older adults, would also help to fill gaps in the current literature. Also, the stratification of analyses by narrower age categories could better support the development of life-stage-specific measures of nutrition security. A second major need is for investigations to use more than two levels of food-security to make meaningful progress toward understanding dietary disparities, along with their application to developing a nutrition security measure that appropriately reflects these potential variations over the life course. With regard to di- etary endpoints, the inconsistent assessment of nutrients including cholesterol, copper, docosahexaenoic acid, eicosapentaenoic acid, vitamins B6, B12, thiamin, riboflavin, niacin, K, nutrient-to-energy ratios, and phosphorus and investigation of bioactives across age groups limits a full characterization of the burden of nutrient inadequacy associated with food-insecurity. This raises the need for more comprehensive nutrient evaluation in future dietary studies. While the evidence of this scoping review does not, on its own, establish a basis for developing a comprehensive, life-course-sensitive nutrition security metric, it provides essential insights that can guide and strengthen future efforts in that direction [6–10]. Devel- oping such a metric may require rigorous, mixed-methods research capable of capturing the multidimensional nature of nutritional adequacy across diverse population groups [123]. Existing exploratory approaches, often relying on proxy indicators such as inadequate intake of select nutrients or food components, are insufficient to characterize the broader spectrum of dietary quality needed to support healthy growth, development, physiological maintenance, and disease prevention [6–10]. Substantial conceptual refinement and em- pirical validation are also needed before a robust measurement framework for nutrition security can be adopted for research, surveillance, or policy use [123]. Incorporating comprehensive and valid nutrition security metrics that capture dietary quality, nutrient adequacy, and physiological needs across the life course into existing safety-net programs, public health monitoring, and clinical settings would improve identifi- cation of vulnerable populations and support more targeted, evidence-based interventions. Importantly, such assessment is included in a key large-scale national surveillance system, the NHANES, essential for standardized, population-level assessment of diet quality and nutrient adequacy across life stages with the capacity for monitoring nutrition security trends over time. https://doi.org/10.3390/nu18111680 Nutrients 2026, 18, 1680 25 of 32

  generalfuture work
  Keywords: nutrient security nutrition life food quality dietary across need future groups support course assessment nutrients
• Evaluation of zinc and copper status in malnourished pediatric population (2026) · Romanian Journal of Pediatrics · doi

  Nutritional assessment should be performed for all children younger than 5 years at the level of pri- mary healthcare centers and outpatient clinics. Mothers should be advised about the importance of breastfeeding as an early preventive measure against malnutrition. They should also be educated about the importance of a nutritious diet during their children’s immunization visits. Zinc and copper supplementati- on may be considered in children at risk of malnutri- tion or undernutrition, and screening of children un- der 5 years of age for zinc, copper, and other micronutrients may also be considered.

  generalrecommendations
  Keywords: children years importance zinc copper considered nutritional assessment performed younger level mary healthcare centers outpatient
• Thyroid Health and Selenium: The Critical Role of Adequate Intake from Fetal Development to Adolescence (2025) · Nutrients · cited 14× · doi

  A starting point would be the use of sustainable food-based strategies to avoid de- pleting soils, especially in areas at higher risk. Moreover, to our knowledge, no studies have investigated strategies to increase awareness of Se intake in the diet. Accordingly, it is crucial to raise awareness of the importance of Se as a micronutrient deficiency during pregnancy and child development in healthy and at-risk populations. Therefore, second- ary and tertiary preventive strategies should be implemented in hospitals that care for pregnant women, including targeted screening and clinical assessments that take Se status into consideration. In addition, these interventions should be supported by primary pre- vention educational programs that raise awareness about the importance of adequate mi- cronutrient intake, contributing to the overall health of mother–child dyads. Moreover, Se levels should be part of standard newborn screening practices and adopted by Nutrients 2025, 17, 2362 17 of 24 pediatricians as a standard check-up to monitor levels to prevent possible deficiency. Fur- thermore, more research is needed to develop public health strategies that mitigate the risk of micronutrient deficiencies, which raise awareness of the importance of Se both from a preventive point of view and in terms of ensuring a proper Se intake.

  generalfuture work
  Keywords: strategies awareness risk intake raise importance point micronutrient deficiency child preventive screening health levels standard

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