Results of nutritional risk screening of patients admitted to hospital

To identify malnutrition, nutritional risk screening and assessment should be performed. A number of nutritional screening and assessment tools have been developed.

Authors monitored the nutritional state of 1266 patients using the MUST (Malnutrition Universal Screening Tool) method. Measurements and questioning were done at admission. The study was cross-sectional, presenting a snapshot about nutritional risk of patients.

In this study 21% of the patients had a BMI smaller than 20.29% patients admitted to hospital lost at least 5% of their body weight in the 3 to 6 months before the admission. Altogether in this survey 41% of the patients are considered to be endangered concerning malnutrition! There is a statistically visible difference at BMI values between the disease groups.

If only body weight of patients is measured, the rate of malnutrition is about 20%. Using MUST the number of endangered patients is doubled. In these patients it is more likely that any complication would develop. Since there is no significant relation between the age and the risk group, MUST screening can be carried out on all patients. We intended to emphasize the necessity of nutritional risk assessment and nutritional therapy at all levels of health care.