Evaluation Of Nutritional Risk And Investigation Of Nutrition Support In Elderly Inpatients In Hubei Province

Objective\r\nTo investigate the incidence of nutritional risk and nutrition support in elderly hospitalized patients in Hubei province.\r\n\r\n\r\nMethods\r\nElderly inpatients aged 70 years and over in seven research centers who were admitted in hospital after Dec.2013 were enrolled.Clinical data were recorded with a special designed form.The malnutrition and nutritional risk were screened using Nutritional Risk Screening 2002(NRS2002)and Mini Nutritional Assessment(MNA)separately.\r\n\r\n\r\nResults\r\nA total of 507 patients were enrolled in this study.The overall prevalence of nutritional risk was 60.9% and 66.4% by NRS2002 and MNA respectively.Two methods comparison were consistent without statistical differences(χ2=3.344, P\u003e0.05). The nutrition risk was increased along with ageing(χ2=15.828, P 0.05). Patients with nutritional risk who suffered from comorbid conditions accounted for a major part.Only 18.7% of patients received nutrition support, hereinto, the levels of nutrition support in cardiovascular and diabetic patients were 13.8% and 15.8% respectively.Merely 14.3% of patients with liquid diet obtained nutrition support.Furthermore, 33.3% of constipation sufferers and 22.9% of diarrhea patients were given nutrition support.The rate of nutrition support was 19.5% and 35.3% separately in patients with the behavioral capacity level 3 and 4.\r\n\r\n\r\nConclusions\r\nThe prevalence of nutritional risk in elderly inpatients in Hubei province is high, which is closely related to age, gender and the number of coexistent diseases.The rate of nutrition support is much lower in patients with high nutritional risk, and they receive an insufficient nutritional treatment.\r\n\r\n\r\nKey words: \r\nNutrition assessment; Nutritional support; Inpatients