The assessment of malnutrition among hospitalized patients in Iran

Since most studies evaluating the prevalence of hospital malnutrition in Iran have only been conducted on a specific group of patients, the present study was designed to investigate the prevalence of malnutrition in several different hospital wards.

The nutritional status of 284 hospitalized patients was evaluated using the PG-SGA short form and compared according to demographic data and body mass index (BMI). Demographic and SGA domains were compared across BMI categories. Malnutrition degree was also compared.

Among the participants, 37.0% (n=105) had moderate malnutrition and 51.1% (n=145) had severe malnutrition. Comparing differences within patients according to their BMI status, there were no significant differences according to age, hospitalization duration, and current food intake status. Only sex and cause of hospitalization showed significant differences. Most of male participants had normal weight and were hospitalized for non-GI disorders (P=0.001 and 0.031, respectively). As expected, the scores obtained from weight, food intake, and symptoms sections of the questionnaire were higher in underweight patients in comparison to other BMI categories. Comparison of the same characteristics as per malnutrition status showed that people with high risk of malnutrition were older (P= 0.023), had oral food intake (P=0.007) and normal BMI (P=0.001).

The number of patients at high risk of malnutrition was relatively significant in the study. A high frequency of malnutrition was observed among individuals with normal BMI. Screening tools in addition to BMI should be used to detect patients at risk of malnutrition.