From Evidence to Clinical Practice: Positive Effect of Implementing a Protein-Enriched Hospital Menu in Conjunction...

Area of Science:

• Clinical Nutrition
• Hospitalized Patient Care
• Dietary Interventions

Background:

• Hospitalized patients at nutrition risk often have inadequate energy and protein intake.
• Standard interventions may not sufficiently address nutritional deficits.

Purpose of the Study:

• To evaluate the efficacy of a protein-enriched menu combined with individualized dietary counseling.
• To compare this combined intervention against a protein-enriched menu alone.

Main Methods:

• Prospective data collection from medical and surgical patients.
• Comparison with a historical intervention group (HIG).
• Primary outcome: patients achieving >75% of energy and protein requirements.

Main Results:

• Intervention group (IG) showed higher achievement of energy (92% vs 76%) and protein (90% vs 66%) requirements.
• IG had significantly higher mean energy (31 vs 25 kcal/kg ABW) and protein (1.2 vs 0.9 g/kg ABW) intake.
• Over 85% of patients with baseline intake <50% achieved ≥75% of requirements.

Conclusions:

• Combined protein-enriched menu and dietary counseling significantly increases energy and protein intake.
• This approach is effective for hospitalized patients at nutrition risk.
• No significant difference in readmission rates was observed.