Journal of the Royal Society of Medicine
-
Comparative Study Clinical Trial Controlled Clinical Trial
Three simple methods of detecting malnutrition on medical wards.
Malnutrition in hospital is often unrecognized. A nutrition team aims to teach simple methods of detecting malnutrition. On a single day all medical in-patients underwent a nutritional assessment. ⋯ Combining the three measurements 29/84 (35%) of patients were malnourished and only 28% of these patients had been assessed by a dietitian. BMI and %WL detect most patients but fluid retention may limit their accuracy. MAMC is useful in those who cannot be weighed or who have fluid retention.