ESPEN 2013 - Late breaking abstract submission

Late Breaking Abstract

ESPEN13-1851

SELF-RATED HEALTH, NUTRITIONAL INTAKE, AND MORTALITY IN ADULT HOSPITALIZED PATIENTS: RESULTS OF A EUROPEAN-WIDE NUTRITIONDAY SURVEY

M. Lainscak ^1,*J. Farkas ²S. Frantal ³P. Singer ⁴M. Hiesmayr ³K. Schindler ³

¹University Clinic Golik, Golnik, ²Chair of Public Health, Faculty of Medicine, Ljubljana, Slovenia, ³Medical University Vienna, Vienna, Austria, ⁴General Intensive Care Department, Rabin Medical Center University Hospital, Petah Tikva, Israel

Rationale: Self-rated health (SRH), nutritional status, and nutritional intake are predicting prognosis in healthy people and in patients with chronic disease. An association between undernutrition and poor SRH was reported for general population whereas the data in chronic disease is lacking. The NutritionDay survey collected comprehensive data about SRH and nutritional indices in a multinational sample. This analysis aimed to investigate relations between SRH, nutritional intake, and all-cause in-hospital mortality.

Methods: NutritionDay is a European-wide standardized one-day cross sectional survey of nutritional factors and food intake in hospitalized patients. SRH was assessed using the 5-point Likert scale (poor, fair, good, very good, excellent) and nutritional intake during last week and on the survey day was recorded to investigate association with in-hospital mortality. 

Results: Analysis was performed in 28106 patients (64±18years, 51% men) with an average BMI of 25.62±6.12 kg/m². Overall, 8% had BMI <18.5, indicating malnutrition. Fair/poor SRH was reported by 59% of patients; 35% and 51% of patients reported abnormal appetite or food intake during last week, and 23% ate less than half of lunch on survey day. During hospital stay, 836 (3%) patients died. Fair/poor SRH (hazard ratio [HR] 1.56, 95% confidence interval [CI] 1.19-2.04), poor food intake during last week (HR 3.31, 95% CI 1.66-6.61), and no lunch eaten (HR 2.11, 95% CI 1.47-3.04) were predictive of death. Relative risk of death increased 7-8 fold for combination of fair/poor SRH with poor nutritional intake.

Conclusion: Fair or poor SRH and poor nutritional intake are common among hospitalized patients. Alone and particular in combination, they predict in-hospital mortality. 

Disclosure of Interest: None Declared

Keywords: None