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Anamnestic weight loss--Do patients remember correctly?
1Medical Department, Regional Hospital West Jutland, Herning, Denmark. jan.eriksen@vest.rm.dk
European Journal of Clinical Nutrition
|March 21, 2013
Summary
Patient recall of weight changes is often inaccurate, impacting nutritional risk assessments. This study highlights significant discrepancies between self-reported and recorded weight data in both hospitalized and outpatient settings.
Area of Science:
- Clinical Nutrition
- Patient Assessment
- Health Informatics
Background:
- Accurate weight change data is crucial for clinical screening and assessment tools.
- Anamnestic (recalled) weight data is frequently used in healthcare settings.
- The reliability of patient-reported weight changes requires investigation.
Purpose of the Study:
- To compare patient-reported weight changes with recorded medical data.
- To assess the accuracy of anamnestic weight data in hospitalized and outpatient populations.
- To identify potential biases in weight change reporting.
Main Methods:
- Collected anamnestic and recorded weight data from 34 hospitalized patients.
- Gathered data on weight changes since the last visit from 156 outpatients.
- Compared self-reported weight fluctuations against documented patient records.
Main Results:
- Significant discrepancies were found between reported and recorded weight changes in both groups.
- Only 75% of patients reporting weight loss had accurate records.
- 25% of patients reporting no weight change had actually lost over 1 kg, indicating poor recall.
Conclusions:
- Patient recollection of weight changes is unreliable for a substantial percentage of individuals.
- Inaccurate weight data can lead to misjudgment of nutritional risk, potentially causing over- or underestimation.
- Emphasizes the need for validated methods to obtain accurate weight change information in clinical practice.
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