Introduction:

hospital malnutrition is a highly prevalent problem and continues to be a pending issue today, often unnoticed by health personnel, with the negative clinical impact this entails.

Objectives:

a) to evaluate nutritional status upon admission; b) to assess the outcome after a week of hospitalization; c) to analyze the relationship between nutritional status and different clinical variables (specialty, age, body weight loss, length of stay, readmissions, and consultations to the endocrinology-nutrition department).

Methods:

an observational, prospective, analytical, randomized study in 260 patients from medical and surgical services, nutritionally evaluated on admission and after seven days of hospitalization using the SGA and NRS-2002.

Results:

prevalence at admission according to the SGA was 48 % and according to NRS-2002, 38.5 %. After a week of hospitalization it increased to 72.5 % and 58.8 %, respectively. After seven days, 2-7.8 % of subjects improved their nutritional status, while 16-27.5 % worsened. Malnutrition on admission was associated with longer stay (6 days for non-malnourished vs 8 days for malnourished); with older age (64 years for non-malnourished vs 71 years for malnourished); with medical vs surgical specialties (44-53 % vs 20-32 %); with weight loss (on admission they had lost 2.1 kg on average as compared to usual weight, and 0.9 kg after seven days of hospitalization); and with premature readmission (8-11 % for non-malnourished vs 27 % for malnourished), among others.

Conclusions:

the study's results offer an overview of hospital malnutrition, showing how patients evolve nutritionally during hospitalization, and which are the crucial moments for action. It is extremely important that health personnel will become aware and take action.

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