Related Experiment Video
Updated: Aug 17, 2026
Breakfast Habits among Schoolchildren in the City of Uruguaiana, Brazil
Published on: July 29, 2020
[Screening for malnutrition among hospitalized patients in a Colombian University Hospital]
Viviana Cruz1, Laura Bernal2, Giancarlo Buitrago1
1Departamento de Epidemiología Clínica y Bioestadística, Facultad de Medicina, Pontificia Universidad Javeriana, Bogotá, Colombia, aruiz@javeriana.edu.co.
Background:
On admission, 30 to 50% of hospitalized patients have some degree of malnutrition, which is associated with longer length of stay, higher rates of complications, mortality and greater costs.
Aim:
To determine the frequency of screening for risk of malnutrition in medical records and assess the usefulness of the Malnutrition Screening Tool (MST).
Material And Methods:
In a cross-sectional study, we searched for malnutrition screening in medical records, and we applied the MST tool to hospitalized patients at the Internal Medicine Wards of San Ignacio University Hospital.
Results:
Of 295 patients included, none had been screened for malnutrition since hospital admission. Sixty one percent were at nutritional risk, with a higher prevalence among patients with HIV (85.7%), cancer (77.5%) and pneumonia. A positive MST result was associated with a 3.2 days increase in length of hospital stay (p = 0.024).
Conclusions:
The prevalence of malnutrition risk in hospitalized patients is high, but its screening is inadequate and it is underdiagnosed. The MST tool is simple, fast, low-cost, and has a good diagnostic performance.
