Background:

non-institutionalized elderly patients who are prescribed an oral nutritional supplement (ONS) often have difficulties with compliance, which leads to physical deterioration and increases the risk of malnutrition.

Objective:

to assess improvement in the nutritional status of patients over 60 years of age, using the Mini Nutritional Assessment (MNA) score after the intervention of a nutritionist during a 6-month follow-up of malnourished patients with an indication for ONS. To demonstrate that the intervention of a nutritionist provides long-term improvements in the nutritional status of malnourished patients who are taking an ONS.

Results:

the nutritional intervention significantly improved BMI (from 22.9 ± 4.5 to 24.0 ± 4.1; p = 0.001) and the MNA score (from 14.7 ± 4.4 to 20.4 ± 5.8; p < 0.001) of the patients, as well as their perception of health (measured by VAS).

Conclusions:

the nutritional advice provided by a nutritionist to patients who were taking an ONS provided a high rate of adherence to treatment, which resulted in improvement in the nutritional status of patients.

        · resumo em Espanhol     · texto em Espanhol     · Espanhol ( pdf )