Prevalence of malnutrition in not critically ill older inpatients

Abstract

Elder people suffer physiological changes and illnes that increase the risk of malnutrition. Nutritional status is a major prognosis factor in older people. This study is aimed at estimating the prevalence of malnutrition among the population of 65 and over inpatients as much at admission as at discharge. We conducted a transversal observational study. 174 consecutive inpatients were examined using Nutritional Risk Screening 2002 (NRS-2002) and Mini Nutritional Assessment Short Form (MNA-SF) in the first 48 hours from admission. Patient Generated Subjective Global Assessment (PG-SGA) was applied to cancer patients. All patients were submitted the NRS-2002 at discharge. 29.31% of patients were at malnutrition risk according to the results of NRS-2002 at admission. This percentage increased up to 57.89% at discharge. The MNA-SF revealed nutritional alteration in 70.35% (54.65% with malnutrition risk, 15.7% with malnutrition). The NRS-2002 showed that 34.14% of cancer patients presented with nutritional risk; however, according to PG-SGA 56.41% of the cases presented with malnutrition to a certain extent (46.15% with moderate malnutrition and 10.26% with serious malnutrition). There are different groups of patients (older patients, transferred from emergency department, patients with heart failure) who present higher risk of nutritional deterioration while they are hospitalised (p < 0.05). There is a very high percentage of 65 and over patients at nutritional risk in our centre, as much at admission as at discharge. It is necessary to install a systematic screening of the nutritional status.