Nutritional status in hospitalized patients in the department of gastroenterohepatology.

BACKGROUND/AIMS: Malnutrition appears to be a major and noticeable problem for hospitalized patients and often present in patients with gastrointestinal diseases. This study attempts to evaluate differences in nutritional status parameters and nutritional state differences among hospitalized patients with various gastrointestinal diseases and disorders.

METHODOLOGY: Our study included 154 males and 146 females, aged 18-84 years old, with various gastrointestinal diseases and disorders. All patients underwent baseline nutritional assessment, including subjective global assessment (SGA), anthropometric measurements, bioelectrical impedance analysis (BIA), and biochemical markers.

RESULTS

Prevalence of malnutrition was 45.7%. The highest prevalence was detected among patients suffering from gastrointestinal malignancies and chronic pancreatitis. All parameters decreased with malnourishment levels, except CRP and in-hospital stay which rose with malnourishment grade. SGA and length of hospital stay negatively correlated with all analyzed variables of nutritional assessment, except CRP.

CONCLUSIONS

Patients suffering from gastrointestinal malignancies, inflammatory bowel disease and peptic ulcer disease have more pronounced level of malnutrition. Body mass index, triceps skin fold thickness, mid-arm circumference, MAMC, wrist circumference, total protein level, albumin, cholesterol, glucose level, lymphocyte count, basal metabolic rate, body fat mass, fat free mass, muscle mass, total body water and resistance appeared to be inversely correlated with malnutrition. However, CRP level correlated positively with the malnutrition severity. SGA malnutrition level is dependent of hospitalization length.