Malnutrition at Hospital Admission—Contributors and Effect on Length of Stay

Abstract

Malnutrition at admission is prevalent and associated with prolonged LOS. Complex disease and age-related social factors are contributors.

More-2-Eat: evaluation protocol of a multi-site implementation of the Integrated Nutrition Pathway for Acute Care

“…director of care, lead nurse, physician, clinical nutrition manager, chief executive office of the hospital) as part of the site proposal process [48,50,[58][59][60][61]. Three of the five sites had participated in the Nutrition Care in Canadian Hospitals (NCCH) study, which was a prevalence investigation focused on describing the issues of malnutrition, outcomes and care practices in hospitals [3,7,17]. This initial NCCH study led to a program of research, which resulted in the development of INPAC and now, M2E.…”

“…The Knowledge-to-Action Process (KTA) theory [66] is being used to understand and explain how M2E fits within the broader program of research [62]. Specifically, that this work was initiated with a prevalence study defining the problem [3,6,7], which resulted in the development of a knowledge translation product (i.e. INPAC) to overcome the problem [37].…”

“…Internationally collated evidence demonstrates that up to half of patients admitted to hospital suffer from or are at risk of malnutrition (under-nutrition) [1][2][3][4][5]. Threequarters of these malnourished patients are not being detected and thus are nutritionally undertreated [6].…”

“…Threequarters of these malnourished patients are not being detected and thus are nutritionally undertreated [6]. This issue is especially of concern for medical patients who are more likely to be malnourished than surgical patients [3,6] and for those over the age of 65 who are more likely to be malnourished than younger patient populations (46% vs. 35% for < 65 years; [7]). Poor food intake is also common and results from multiple factors including poor food quality, food/eating preferences, feeling unwell and other disease side effects, as well as barriers to food intake, such as not being able to access the tray or requiring eating assistance [8,9].…”

“…Poor food intake is also common and results from multiple factors including poor food quality, food/eating preferences, feeling unwell and other disease side effects, as well as barriers to food intake, such as not being able to access the tray or requiring eating assistance [8,9]. Both poor hospital food intake and malnutrition lead to negative health outcomes including a longer length of stay, readmission, and comorbidities and mortality [3,7,[10][11][12][13][14].…”