Abstract

CHIVU, Elena Cristina; ARTERO-FULLANA, Ana; ALFONSO-GARCIA, Antonio  and  SANCHEZ-JUAN, Carlos. Detection of malnutrition risk in hospital. Nutr. Hosp. [online]. 2016, vol.33, n.4, pp.894-900. ISSN 1699-5198.  https://dx.doi.org/10.20960/nh.389.

Background: Given the high prevalence of hospital malnutrition, early identification of patients who are nutritionally depleted is necessary. When nutritional assessment cannot be made, the use of validated nutritional screening tools is recommended. These help to quickly identify those patients in need of nutritional treatment. Aims: To determine the prevalence of malnutrition risk in the General University Hospital of Valencia, employing HEMAN nutritional screening tool, and to assess the appropriateness of this tool in clinical practice. Methods: Observational cross-sectional study conducted on a sample of 1,099 patients admitted to a tertiary hospital. All of them underwent nutritional screening HEMAN 24-48 hours after admission. The qualitative variables were compared using chi-square, and quantitative by Student's t test. Results: The risk of malnutrition prevalence was 33.5%. Patients who tested positive in screening (HEMAN ≥ 3) were older than patients who were normally nourished, related weight loss 5-10% and 55.2% decreased their intake to less than 50% of normal. Also they presented with pathologies considered mild to moderate. HEMAN utilization method as a screening tool proved to be practical and effective, helping to reduce the time spent with each patient respondent evaluated. Conclusions: A high prevalence of malnutrition risk among the patients evaluated was detected; therefore it is essential to the use of nutritional screening methods in daily hospital routine. We highly recommend the use of HEMAN nutritional screening tool.

Keywords : Nutritional screening; Prevalence; HEMAN; Malnutrition; Nutritional risk.

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