Abstract
Background & Aims: We compared the screening nutritional data of patients with malignant and non-malignant disease, and classified their nutritional risk according to the primary tumor’s site. Methods: Subjective Global Assessment was applied to 3008 patients within 48 h of admission to a public university. Subjects were divided into Oncologic Group (n = 576) or Non-Oncologic Group (n = 2432) according to the presence of neoplasms or other diseases respectively. These data were compared by the t-student test and classic chi-square test, with statistical significance set at p < 0.05. Results: The Oncologic Group presented a higher prevalence of weight loss (60.3% vs. 49.3%), quantitative (40.7% vs. 28.5%) and qualitative (16.4% vs. 7.6%) alterations in the food intake pattern, gastrointestinal symptoms and muscle waste (23.2% vs. 13.2%) as compared to the Non-Oncologic Group. Also, there was a higher prevalence of nutritional disturbances in the Oncologic Group, with 49.5% of the subjects moderately (or suspected to be malnourished) and 12.7% severely mal-nourished. Severe malnourishment was mainly observed in patients with head and neck (25%), upper digestive tract (21.9%) and soft tissue and bones (17.9%) tumors. Conclusion: When compared to other hospitalized patients, patients with neoplastic disease were in higher nutritional risk.
Highlights
Despite being observed more frequently in terminal cancer stages, unintentional weight loss may occur even before diagnosing the cancer itself [1]
Weight loss less than 10% of usual body weight was similar between the groups (Table 2)
This study demonstrated that hospitalized patients with malignant disease presented a higher prevalence of weight loss, reduced food intake, gastrointestinal symptoms and muscle wasting than non-oncologic patients
Summary
Despite being observed more frequently in terminal cancer stages, unintentional weight loss may occur even before diagnosing the cancer itself [1]. We compared the screening nutritional data of patients with malignant and non-malignant disease, and classified their nutritional risk according to the primary tumor’s site. Subjects were divided into Oncologic Group (n = 576) or Non-Oncologic Group (n = 2432) according to the presence of neoplasms or other diseases respectively. These data were compared by the t-student test and classic chi-square test, with statistical significance set at p < 0.05. Results: The Oncologic Group presented a higher prevalence of weight loss (60.3% vs 49.3%), quantitative (40.7% vs 28.5%) and qualitative (16.4% vs 7.6%) alterations in the food intake pattern, gastrointestinal symptoms and muscle waste (23.2% vs 13.2%) as compared to the Non-Oncologic Group. Conclusion: When compared to other hospitalized patients, patients with neoplastic disease were in higher nutritional risk
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