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Observational Study
. 2022 Nov;76(11):1611-1614.
doi: 10.1038/s41430-022-01145-y. Epub 2022 Apr 20.

Recognising undernutrition in a community hospital: the nursing judgement is insufficient

Beatrice Gasperini  1   2 , Gilda Pelusi  3 , Annamaria Frascati  4 , Ilenia Carletta  5 , Franco Dolcini  6 , Donatella Sarti  5 , Emma Espinosa  7 , Emilia Prospero  5
Affiliations
Observational Study

Recognising undernutrition in a community hospital: the nursing judgement is insufficient

Beatrice Gasperini et al. Eur J Clin Nutr. 2022 Nov.

Abstract

Introduction: Standardised nutritional screening methods improve the rate of recognising older patients with undernutrition, which is strongly encouraged in hospitals and residential settings. Therefore, our study compared the rates of identifying undernutrition before and after introducing the Mini Nutritional Assessment (MNA®) in a community hospital.

Methods: This was a single-centre, retrospective, observational before-after study. Participants were subjects aged 65 years or older, admitted to a community hospital from May 2018 to December 2020. The nursing assessment at admission included the MNA® from January 2020. The prevalence of undernutrition gathered by nursing diagnoses from 2018 to 2019 was compared with data obtained using the MNA® in 2020. Then, a confirmatory analysis was conducted to compare the prevalence of undernutrition in 2020 when both nursing diagnoses and the MNA® were used.

Results: We analysed data of approximately 316 patients (238 before and 78 after introducing the MNA®). Overall, results showed that 47.1% (n = 149) of the patients were undernourished. As observed, the prevalence of undernutrition was 38.6% (n = 92) in 2018-2019 and 73.1% (n = 57) in 2020 (p < 0.001). In 2020, however, 38.5% of patients (n = 30) were identified as undernourished using the MNA® but not using nursing diagnoses. Therefore, the correlation between these two methods was poor (Pearson's correlation 0.169, p = 0.14).

Conclusion: Identifying elderly patients with undernutrition significantly increased after introducing the MNA®. Undernutrition is a common condition that should be systematically screened using a validated tool to activate personalised nutritional interventions promptly.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no competing interests.

Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1. Comparison between the undernutrition frequencies observed was estimated using the MNA® and nursing diagnoses for patients admitted in 2020.
The set intersection shows undernourished subjects recognised using both nursing diagnoses and the MNA®.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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