Aktuelle Ernährungsmedizin 2007; 32 - P1_4
DOI: 10.1055/s-2007-983388

Prevalence and predictors of malnutrition in surgical patients – Results of Nutrition Day 2007at the University of Bonn

S Blass 1, A Reich 1, S Ellinger 1, H Goost 2, L Pauly 1, S Lesser 1, J Bai 1, J Engels 2, D Pantelis 3, A Meissner 4, C Burger 2, A Hirner 3, S Mueller 4, DC Wirtz 2, P Stehle 1
  • 1Department of Nutrition and Food Science, Nutritional Physiology
  • 2Department of Orthopaedic and Trauma Surgery
  • 3Department of General Surgery
  • 4 Department of Urology, University of Bonn, Germany

Introduction: Malnutrition is a common problem in hospitalized patients and has shown to be favoured by higher age, multiple medication, malignant disease and major comorbidity (1). However, the contribution of other factors like energy intake in the previous week, main diagnosis and the presence of a person dedicated to nutritional care on malnutrition have not been reliably assessed.

Methods: Nutritional status and potential predictors were investigated in 98 inpatients from the surgery centre (SC) (n=57 Orthopaedic/Trauma surgery (OTS), n=23 General surgery (GS), n=18 Urology (U)) within Nutrition Day 2007 using the Kondrup screening score (NRS) (2). The risk/prevalence of malnutrition (RPM) between the clinical departments was compared with Χ2- and Tukey-test. Univariate analysis was used to investigate the effect of potential predictors on RPM.

Results: Age (yrs) was higher in patients from OTS (61±15; p=0.003) and GS (60±10; p=0.007) than from U (47±17). BMI was 27.5±5.8kg/m2 without differences between the clinical departments. RPM was identified in more patients from GS (67%; p=0.009) and U (53%; p=0.013) than from OTS (32%). Main diagnosis in patients from GS affected RPM (p=0.022) as well as malignant disease in GS (p=0.021) and U (p=0.07). In OTS 22%, in GS and U both 18% of the patients ate less than half of the meals in the previous week. In contrast to multiple medication, caloric intake in the previous week (p=0.019) and the presence of a person dedicated to nutritional care (p=0.003) had an impact on RPM in patients from SC.

Conclusion: Since hypocaloric diet and the absence of a person dedicated to nutritional care are important predictors for RPM in patients from SC, an improvement in nutritional care and therapy may prevent from RPM.

References: (1) Pirlich M et al. The German hospital malnutrition study. Clin Nutr 2006;25:563–572 (2) Kondrup J et al. Nutritional risk screening (NRS 2002): A new method based on an analysis of controlled clinical trials. Clin Nutr 2003;22(3):321–336