Nutritional requirements and actual dietary intake of adult burn patients

Nutritional support of the burn patient is essential to optimize, host immune defenses and to promote prompt wound healing. Furthermore, the increased needs in calorie requirement of burned patients, the composition of proteins, carbohydrates and fats in their diet is important. The purpose of this study was to evaluate energy, macronutrient and micronutrient intake and comparing with Reference Daily Intake (RDI) in adult burn patients. Sixty thermally injured patients who were hospitalized in a burn care Imam Reza hospital in Mashhad, Iran, were included in this cross-sectional study. Information about actual intake was collected by ‘nutrient intake analysis (NIA) through direct observation. Individual nutritional intakes were assessed with the use of nutritionist 4 software and Data was analyzed by SPSS version 18. The mean of energy, carbohydrate and protein intake was significantly lower than the mean total energy requirement and carbohydrate and protein RDA (p<0.001). While the mean fat intake was inside the range of RDI (20.5±8.3%). The mean of vitamins A and folate and C intake were significantly lower than the RDI (All p<0.001). This study showed that the energy, protein and carbohydrate intake in patients with major burn were lower than the RDA but the amount of fat intake was inside the range of RDA. In addition, we found that the vitamins and minerals intake in adult with major burn was lower than RDI and may decelerate wound healing and increase the duration of hospitalization.