Nutritional intake is associated with activities of daily living and complications in older inpatients with stroke

Abstract

There is no consensus on energy intake in the acute stage and how it relates to improvement in activities of daily living (ADL) in geriatric stroke patients. We examined whether energy intake after admission is related to improvement in ADL and complications. This retrospective cohort study evaluated the data from stroke inpatients at five acute care hospitals, including the mean daily energy intake during the first week after admission. Patients were categorized into two groups based on their daily energy intake; cases where the energy intake per day reached the basal energy expenditure calculated by the Harris-Benedict equation were designated as the intake energy sufficiency group. Patient characteristics were compared between groups. We assessed ADL using the Functional Independence Measure; a secondary outcome was the presence of complications. Of the 192 participants (mean age 79.6 ± 7.6 years) included in the study, 131 patients were admitted for cerebral infarction, 58 for intracerebral hemorrhage and three for subarachnoid hemorrhage. Of the two groups, that with an energy sufficiency had a greater gain in total Functional Independence Measure (median 27 and 9, respectively; P = 0.001) and a lower complication rate (6.7% and 26.5%, respectively; P ≤ 0.001). Multivariate analyses showed that energy sufficiency was independently associated with the total Functional Independence Measure gain and complication rate. Energy intake during the first week after admission affected improvement of ADL and onset of complications during hospitalization in geriatric stroke inpatients. Geriatr Gerontol Int 2018; 18: 1334-1339.