Assessment of nutritional risk in patients admitted to the Inpatient area of the Hospital General Reina del Cisne

Abstract

Malnutrition at the hospital level is one of the main health problems. There are different alternatives for nutritional diagnosis, one of them being Nutritional Risk Screening (NRS-2002). This study aimed to determine the nutritional risk in patients admitted to the hospitalization area of the Hospital General Reina del Cisne. The study was a descriptive, cross-sectional, non-experimental study. To determine the Nutritional Risk, the NRS-2002 screening, food consumption frequency (FCA), and Body Composition analysis by Bioimpedance was used. The results obtained indicated that 49,18% of patients were at risk of malnutrition. The BMI was able to detect 50,82% with a diagnosis of normal weight, of which 26,23% are at risk of malnutrition. In the skeletal muscle analysis, 57,4% are in a low range, of which 40,98% are patients identified as being at risk of malnutrition. In the FCA, it was found that the dietary pattern of the population indicates insufficient consumption of the following food groups: whole grains (93,4%), fruits (86,9%), dairy products (59%), vegetables (50,88%), and water (75,4%); at the same time, high consumption of sugars (75,4%) was observed. A single method should not be used as the only way to diagnose malnutrition, and it is necessary to complete it with other markers, which is why it is important to perform the NRS-2002 nutritional screening. It was found that patients admitted to the hospitalization area do present alterations in their body composition and risk of malnutrition.