[Satisfaction with the hospital menu in a tertiary hospital]

Introduction: disease-related malnutrition remains a significant clinical and care-related issue in Spain. Improving the quality of hospital food and ensuring adequate intake is essential for its prevention. Patients' perception of the hospital menu can directly influence their food consumption. Objectives: to evaluate the satisfaction and food intake of hospitalized patients in relation to the menu served at a tertiary-level hospital, as well as the factors that influencing them. Material and methods: cross-sectional study with consecutive data collection by means of a survey of 363 patients admitted to different units of the Hospital Regional Universitario de Málaga with basal, therapeutic or individualized oral diets. Demographic variables, presence of digestive symptoms or chewing disorders, degree of intake of the hospital menu and satisfaction with different aspects of the service (temperature, presentation, preparation and schedule) were analyzed, as well as an overall assessment of the diet (scale 1-10). Results: the mean age was 43.8 ± 25.7 years, with a mean stay of 14 ± 24.4 days among the patients surveyed. A total of 77.7 % of the respondents consumed at least half of the tray. The evaluation of the service aspects was positive in most cases (temperature: 88.1 %, preparation: 78 %, presentation: 79.6 %, schedule: 72.2 %). Overall satisfaction with the menu was 7.36 ± 2.00 points. Conclusions: hospitalized patients showed high satisfaction with the menu received, with good acceptance in terms of temperature, presentation and food preparation. Most patients consumed an adequate proportion of their tray, which reflects an adequate performance of the hospital catering service.