Does nutritional intervention maintain its prognostic benefit in the long term for malnourished patients hospitalised...

To assess the long-term effect of nutritional intervention on malnourished, hospitalised patients with heart failure (HF).

A total of 120 malnourished patients hospitalized for HF were randomised to undergo (or not) an individual nutritional intervention for 6 months. The primary event was the combination of all-cause death and readmission for HF. We performed an intent-to-treat analysis and assessed the effect of the intervention at 24 months.

The combined event occurred in 47.5% of the intervention group and in 73.8% of the control group (hazard ratio: 0.45; 95% confidence interval: 0.28-0.72; P=.001). Thirty-nine percent of the intervention group and 59% of the control group died (hazard ratio: 0.53; 95% confidence interval: 0.31-0.89; P=.017).

A nutritional intervention for malnourished patients hospitalised for HF maintains its prognostic benefit in the long-term follow-up.