Aim:

the objective of our real-life study was to evaluate adherence and taste preferences of a hypercaloric and hyperprotein oral nutritional supplement (ONS) in malnourished hospitalized patients.

Methods:

a total of 34 in patients with recent weight loss were included in this study. One flavor (coffe, vanilla or strawberry) was administered each day in a random way to each patient during three consecutive days. In the first three days, patients were asked to fulfill two questionnaires intended to reflect ONS (Renutryl®) tolerance and acceptance. Adherence to the ONS was measured during hospital stay.

Results:

the sweet flavor was higher for strawberry (4.54 ± 0.2 points) than for the vanilla flavor (3.13 ± 0.1 points; p < 0.03) and coffee flavor (3.03 ± 0.1 points; p <0.02). When analyzing the total number of patients who took supplements after choosing the flavor, the patients who chose coffee took a total of 13.3 ± 1.1 packages on average during hospitalization (0.91 ± 0.2 per day), the patients who chose strawberry took 13.4 ± 1.3 packages (0.92 ± 0.1 per day), and finally the patients who chose vanilla packages took 8.3 ± 0, 9 packages during admission (0.61 ± 0.1 per day), with significant differences in favor of the strawberry and coffee flavors versus vanilla. The ONS chosen mostly by the patients at hospital discharge was the multiflavor pack (n = 20; 50 %).

Conclusions:

taste preferences for the three flavored ONSs are similar, although adherence was higher during admission to the coffee- and strawberry-flavored ONS. Sweetness may have influenced this finding, especially with the strawberry flavor, with a good tolerance of all three flavors

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