[Patients at risk for malnutrition in primary care. Social and health study]

The worsening nutritional condition of certain population segments is an ever more frequent situation. Malnutrition also has considerable consequences, both in healthy individuals and in patients, leading to an increase in morbidity/mortality among the general population. The purpose of the present study is to learn the opinion of doctors in primary health care about the frequency of patients at risk of malnutrition attending their clinics; the most common forms of diagnostic technique used, the groups of population and situations that show the greatest risk of malnutrition as well as the therapeutic actions undertaken.

The present study effected 1819 opinion polls of primary health care doctors, distributed in proportion to the provincial distribution of doctors throughout Spain. With a margin of error of +/- 2.3% and a confidence interval of 95.5% (K-2).

Of the patients seen in primary health care centres, 11% are at risk of malnutrition and approximately 61% of the total are detected at the medical clinic. The situations with the greatest risk are advanced age (71%), marginalized population (drug abusers, alcoholics) (56%), anorexia (50%), patients with mental disorders (42%), oncological pathologies (41%) and prolonged confinement in bed (39%). The therapeutic attitudes considered most appropriate by primary health care practitioners are a greater attention to diets and the use of nutritional supports in cases of established malnutrition.

The present study reflects a high incidence of malnutrition risk among patients attending primary health care clinics (11%); and highlights the importance, from the point of view of preventive medicine, of improving nutritional education among professionals, as well as the availability of simple therapeutic actions and support measures that might help to avoid larger-scale problems with a large social and financial cost.