[Current status of the degree of malnutrition in hospitalized patients of the Community of La Rioja].

UNLABELLED: Recent studies have reflected the prevalence of malnutrition within the hospital sphere. The high incidence of malnutrition in hospitals and the negative effect this has on the evolution of patients, since complications are significantly greater in undernourished patients, make it important to find out the nutritional status of patients when they are admitted to hospital and to follow their progress. In the La Rioja region, there have been no prior studies establishing the nutritional status of patients in hospital, so this study was undertaken. It is important to know whether malnutrition is present, the degree of any malnutrition found, and, where necessary, to make the medical and nursing staff aware of the importance of proper nutritional care during a hospital stay.

MATERIALS AND

METHODS

In a sample of 240 patients selected at random, a nutritional assessment was made on admission. If the patients were still hospitalized one week later, the nutritional assessment was repeated.

RESULTS

After the initial assessment, only 12.5% of the 240 patients showed normal nutritional status; mild malnutrition was seen in 55% of cases while moderate and severe cases represented 28.3% and 0.8%, with the most prevalent types of malnutrition being kwasiorkor and mixed (31.6% and 29.6%, respectively). There was no statistical association between the sex of the patient and the degree of malnutrition (p > 0.05). On analysis of the cases by age group, those patients aged less than 65 years mainly presented a marasmus-like and mixed malnutrition, both to a slight degree, whereas the most prevalent malnutrition in patients over the age of 65 was the kwashiorkor type. Among patients with slight and moderate degrees of malnutrition, most of them were diagnosed as suffering from digestive-system related pathologies. After one week, 37.5% of them continued in hospital and approximately half of those presenting normal nutritional status on admission were found to have a status of slight malnutrition.