-
- Cathy Kubrak and Louise Jensen.
- Faculty of Nursing, University of Alberta, 3rd Floor Clinical Sciences Bldg., Edmonton, Alta., Canada. ckubrak@ualberta.ca <ckubrak@ualberta.ca>
- Int J Nurs Stud. 2007 Aug 1;44(6):1036-54.
ObjectivesThis narrative review assesses the current prevalence of malnutrition, the methods for detection of malnutrition, the factors associated with malnutrition, and the effects of malnutrition in the acute care patients.DesignA narrative review methodology was employed.Data SourcesCINAHL, Pub Med, and MEDLINE electronic databases were searched from 1996 to 2005, for English language articles. Search terms of malnutrition, acute care patients, nutrition assessment, and nutrition screening were used.Review MethodThe titles and abstracts of 857 articles were examined. Full text of the articles were obtained only when abstracts described undernutrition, malnutrition, protein-energy malnutrition, nutrition assessment, nutrition screening, factors contributing to malnutrition, or resultant outcomes of malnutrition in adult acute care patients. Additionally, a hand search through reference lists of retrieved articles was done. The articles reviewed included empirical reports (110), reviews (25), commentaries (4), and reports from professional associations (10).ResultsCurrently, malnutrition ranges from 13-78% among acute care patients. Different methods of detecting malnutrition make it difficult to determine the prevalence among acute care patients. Additionally, many nutrition-screening tools used to detect malnutrition have not undergone rigorous testing for validity, reliability, sensitivity, and specificity. Numerous personal and organizational factors affect the nutritional status of acute care patients. Diminished nutritional status contributes to increased use of hospital resources and increased hospital costs.ConclusionMalnutrition continues to be a significant problem among acute care patients. The Subjective Global Assessment tool has the most diagnostic value for acute care patients. Simple measures, like documenting height and weight on admission, and assessing patient's nutritional intake, weight status, and medications that alter nutritional intake could assist in early detection of malnutrition in the acute care patient.
Notes
Knowledge, pearl, summary or comment to share?You can also include formatting, links, images and footnotes in your notes
- Simple formatting can be added to notes, such as
*italics*
,_underline_
or**bold**
. - Superscript can be denoted by
<sup>text</sup>
and subscript<sub>text</sub>
. - Numbered or bulleted lists can be created using either numbered lines
1. 2. 3.
, hyphens-
or asterisks*
. - Links can be included with:
[my link to pubmed](http://pubmed.com)
- Images can be included with:
![alt text](https://bestmedicaljournal.com/study_graph.jpg "Image Title Text")
- For footnotes use
[^1](This is a footnote.)
inline. - Or use an inline reference
[^1]
to refer to a longer footnote elseweher in the document[^1]: This is a long footnote.
.