Ariel Jasqui Bucay¹, Mariana Arroyo Machiavelo¹, Karolina Alvarez-Altamirano², Andrea Alarcón³, Fernanda Ripoll^3,, Vanessa Fuchs-Tarlovsky²

Background: Hospital malnutrition is a global complex, multi-factorial problem, mainly due to lack of appropriate awareness. Hospital malnutrition negatively impacts patient's recovery and increases hospitalization cost. Materials and methods: We assessed hospitalized patients during the first 24-48 hours. Nutritional risk screening (NRS 2002) was applied; anthropometric and dietary parameters were evaluated. Objective: 1) To assess nutritional status and risk of malnutrition in patients admitted to a Mexican public hospital. 2) To determine the frequency of patients who did not meet their energy and protein needs. Results: We evaluated a total of 568 patients. Risk of malnutrition was present in 3.6% of patients at admission while 84% of them were at risk of malnutrition after prolonged hospitalization. A BMI<20 Kg/m² was observed in 7.4% of the patients, whereas 49.5% were classified and obese or overweight. Weight loss >10% was seen in 32.9% of the patients. Food intake showed that in average hospital patients consumed 50% of their caloric requirements and 39% of protein requirements; only 42% of the patients had a food intake between 70-100%. Conclusions: Hospital malnutrition is a complex issue with both personal and institutional etiological factors. Healthcare institutions must improve awareness and training of personnel and the quality of hospital nutrition/food service to improve the addressing of hospital malnutrition.

hospital malnutrition, nutrition requirements, nutrition risk screening, food services, hospital patients