Abstract

  Reasons of malnutrition are decreased food intake and appetite due to illness gastrointestinal symptoms, compromised ability to chew or swallow (dysphagia), Nil per os (NPO) status for diagnostic and therapeutic procedures. A cross-sectional study was conducted in tertiary care hospitals of Lahore. The point prevalence of malnutrition was determined by using MUST. Patients who were terminally ill were excluded from study. Demographic features including name, age, social status and diseased condition was recorded. Other possible methods were adopted to assess weight and height for those patients who were unable to stand. Nutritional intake of patient was assessed for past 5 days which would be related to the acute disease effect score. History of weight loss for past 3-6 months was recorded. By using data, scores were determined for BMI, weight loss and acute disease effect. On the basis of total score, patients were categorized in low, medium and high risk for malnutrition. 56.3% patients were at high risk of malnutrition and only 14% patients had normal BMI score. 58.4% patients had >10% and 28.1% patients had 5-10% unintentional weight loss in past 3-6 months. Energy and protein intake increased after nutrition education. Average protein intake increased from 0.65 g/kg/day to 1.29 g/kg/day. The MUST was an easy and effective method to define the point prevalence of malnutrition in Pakistani patients Moreover, system-wide screening method can bring the best practices in nutrition care by involving stakeholders and decision makers in addressing any shortcomings in nutrition care and in forming baseline for future nutritional interventions.

Keywords: Nutrition Screening; Lahore; MUST (Malnutrition Universal Screening Tool)

References

1. De Onis Mercedes., et al. "The Worldwide Magnitude of Protein-Energy Malnutrition: An Overview from the Who Global Database on Child Growth”. Bulletin of the World health Organization6 (1993): 703.
2. Corkins Mark R., et al. "Malnutrition Diagnoses in Hospitalized Patients: United States, 2010”. Journal of Parenteral and Enteral Nutrition2 (2014): 186-195.
3. Thomas David R. "Distinguishing Starvation from Cachexia”. Clinics in Geriatric Medicine4 (2002): 883-891.
4. Tappenden, Kelly A., et al. "Critical Role of Nutrition in Improving Quality of Care: An Interdisciplinary Call to Action to Address Adult Hospital Malnutrition”. Journal of Parenteral and Enteral Nutrition4 (2013): 482-497.
5. Jensen Gordon L., et al. "Adult Starvation and Disease‐Related Malnutrition: A Proposal for Etiology‐Based Diagnosis in the Clinical Practice Setting from the International Consensus Guideline Committee”. Journal of Parenteral and Enteral Nutrition2 (2010): 156-59.
6. Sieber CC. "Nutritional Screening Tools: How Does the Mna Compare”. The Journal of Nutrition, Health and Aging 6 (2006): 488-494.
7. Harris Dylan and Nadim Haboubi. "Malnutrition Screening in the Elderly Population”. Journal of the Royal Society of Medicine9 (2005): 411-414.
8. Kondrup JESPEN., et al. "Espen Guidelines for Nutrition Screening 2002”. Clinical nutrition4 (2003): 415-421.
9. Stratton Rebecca J., et al. "Malnutrition in Hospital Outpatients and Inpatients: Prevalence, Concurrent Validity and Ease of Use of the ‘Malnutrition Universal Screening Tool’(‘Must’) for Adults”. British Journal of Nutrition 5 (2004): 799-808.
10. Rahman Adam., et al. "Malnutrition Matters in Canadian Hospitalized Patients: Malnutrition Risk in Hospitalized Patients in a Tertiary Care Center Using the Malnutrition Universal Screening Tool”. Nutrition in Clinical Practice5 (2015): 709-713.
11. Goates Scott., et al. "Economic Burden of Disease-Associated Malnutrition at the State Level”. PloS one9 (2016): e0161833.
12. Correia Maria Isabel Toulson Davisson., et al. "Economic Burden of Hospital Malnutrition and the Cost–Benefit of Supplemental Parenteral Nutrition in Critically Ill Patients in Latin America”. Journal of medical economics11 (2018): 1047-1056.
13. Rasheed Solah and Robert T Woods. "Malnutrition and Associated Clinical Outcomes in Hospitalized Patients Aged 60 and Older: An Observational Study in Rural Wales”. Journal of nutrition in gerontology and geriatrics1 (2013): 71-80.
14. Loh KW., et al. "Unintentional Weight Loss Is the Most Important Indicator of Malnutrition among Surgical Cancer Patients”. The Netherlands Journal of Medicine 8 (2012): 365-369.
15. Huisman Ellen J., et al. "Protein Energy Malnutrition Predicts Complications in Liver Cirrhosis”. European Journal of Gastroenterology and Hepatology11 (2011): 982-989.
16. Hejazi Najmeh., et al. "Nutritional Assessment in Critically Ill Patients”. Iranian Journal of Medical Sciences 3 (2016): 171.
17. Chao Pei-Chun., et al. "The Malnutrition Universal Screening Tool (Must) and a Nutrition Education Program for High Risk Cancer Patients: Strategies to Improve Dietary Intake in Cancer Patients”. Biomedicine3 (2015).
18. Pérez-Torres, Almudena., et al. "Improvement in Nutritional Status in Patients with Chronic Kidney Disease-4 by a Nutrition Education Program with No Impact on Renal Function and Determined by Male Sex”. Journal of Renal Nutrition5 (2017): 303-310.

Citation

Citation: Saneela Saleem.,et al. "Nutrition Screening of Elderly Patients Hospitalized in Tertiary Care Hospitals in Lahore by using MUST".Acta Scientific Nutritional Health 4.1 (2020): 40-43.

Copyright

Copyright: © 2020 Saneela Saleem.,et al. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.