Prevalence of malnutrition in a tertiary care hospital in India

Abstract

Introduction:Malnutrition adversely affects clinical outcome of hospitalized patients. This observational prospective study was done to assess the prevalence of malnutrition and its grade among patients admitted in a mixed intensive care unit (ICU) of a tertiary care hospital in order to help devise a comprehensive nutrition program for the malnourished.Materials and Methods:A total of 500 sequential patients admitted to the ICU were screened on admission over a year period for malnutrition using the Subjective Global Nutritional Assessment (SGNA) score. Distribution of the degree of malnutrition according to co-morbidities was also documented.Results:Of the total, 198 (39.6%) patients were malnourished, including one patient qualifying as severely malnourished; 68% patients were male, however, there was no statistically significant difference between nutrition status between sexes. Hypertension, diabetes, and cancer were the three most commonly encountered co-morbidities among the malnourished. A total of 86% of all cancer patients admitted were malnourished against only 12% of trauma patients.Conclusion:This study showed that almost two-fifth of the patients admitted were malnourished in this tertiary care hospital and that there is an urgent need to develop a comprehensive nutritional care program in many such Indian ICUs.

Disease-related adult malnutrition in tertiary health care settings in Sri Lanka

“…This may be due to low sample size in this age group and need more representative study to confirm it. Dominguez [2] also found that older patients (above 60 years) were more malnourished and it was supported by Chakravarty, et al [22] and Kruizenga, et al [7] also. But Naderi, et al [14] found younger patients (18-29 year) to be more malnourished.…”

“…Many studies have used combination of BMI and intention weight loss as screening tools to identify diseases related malnutrition [16,22], some used BMI alone [23,24] and others both criteria were used [2,25,26]. This study revealed that the prevalence of DRM was 25.9% and 21.0% at tertiary care settings respectively.…”

Malnutrition in Intensive Care Units: An Important Risk Factor for Intensive Care Unit-Acquired Infections

“…Poor nutritional status includes under-nutrition and malnutrition states. It has been reported that the prevalence of malnutrition in acutely hospitalized adults is approximately 50% in these countries (3,16). Malnutrition is an important problem that increases mortality and morbidity.…”

“…Intensive care unit patients are considered to be malnourished when their food (protein, carbohydrates, and lipids) supply is not enough to meet their metabolic requirements (3). The causes of malnutrition in patients in ICU are multifactorial.…”

“…Another observational, prospective study was performed by Chakravarty et al (3), in which the prevalence of malnutrition and its grade among patients who were admitted in a mixed ICU of a tertiary care hospital in India were considered. Five hundred sequential patients who were admitted to the ICU were screened on admission for malnutrition over a 1-year period.…”