Malnutrition, Undernutrition
Conditions
Keywords
Undernutrition, Nutritional risk, NRS2002, nutritional care practices, hospital, elderly patients, nursing students
Brief summary
The purpose of this study is to estimate the prevalence of nutritional risk and examine nutritional care practices in the hospitalized elderly at one large university hospital in Norway.
Detailed description
A cross-sectional study was designed and carried out at a university hospital in Norway. The study was developed by a collegium at a nursing bachelor education program in a multidisciplinary collaboration with representatives from the university hospital and other experts. Data on nutritional risk and nutritional care practices of elderly patients were collected by 173 second year nursing students at the university college in question who were undergoing their acute and clinical care practice studies on 20 wards at the university hospital. Nine nutritional screening days were conducted in the academic years 2011/2012 and 2012/2013. On the screening days the students filled in the questionnaire for each patient, including questions about age, gender, length of hospital stay, normal weight in recent months, weight, height, BMI, nutritional risk and nutritional care practices. The students measured weight and height whenever possible, and screened the patients for nutritional risk. Data were collected by using a stratified sampling technique along with adequate power calculations to improve the representativeness of the sample. The researchers received anonymously completed questionnaires and screening forms from the students and never met the patients.
Interventions
None listed
Sponsors
University Hospital, Akershus
Oslo Metropolitan University
Study design
Observational model
CASE_ONLY
Time perspective
CROSS_SECTIONAL
Eligibility
Sex/Gender
ALL
Age
70 Years to No maximum
Healthy volunteers
Yes
Inclusion criteria
* All elderly (≥70 yrs) patients admitted on the included wards at 08.00 am on the screening days were asked to participate.
Exclusion criteria
* Terminal patients (assumed short-lived, \<1 month), patients diagnosed with dementia and patients whom the ward staff found unfit to participate were excluded.
Design outcomes
Primary
| Measure | Time frame | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Nutritional risk | 9 screening days were conducted in 2011-2013 | Patients was screened for nutritional risk on 9 screening days conducted in the academic years of 2011/2012 and 2012/2103. The Nutritional Risk Screening Tool 2002 (NRS2002) was employed to identify nutritional risk in the patients. |
Secondary
| Measure | Time frame | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Nutritional care practices | 9 nutritional screening days were conducted in the period 2011-2013 | Questions regarding the nutritional care practices concerned weight measurements on admission and then weekly, conduction of nutritional risk screening, coding of undernutrition diagnosis (E43, E44, or E46) in line with the International Statistical Classification of Diseases and Related Health Problems (ICD-10), and initiation of nutritional measures. |
Outcome results
None listed