Nutritional status of patients hospitalised in Poland

• Published in: European journal of clinical nutrition 2005-04, Vol.59 (4), p.552-560
• Main Authors: Dzieniszewski, J, Jarosz, M, Szczygiel, B, Dlugosz, J, Marlicz, K, Linke, K, Lachowicz, A, Ryzko-Skiba, M, Orzeszko, M
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Adolescent; Adult; adults; Aged; Aged, 80 and over; Albumin; Albumins - analysis; anthropometric measurements; Antioxidants; Arm circumference; Ascorbic acid; Biological and medical sciences; Blood; blood chemistry; Blood levels; Body Mass Index; Body size; Body weight; Cell number; Clinical Nutrition; Cyanocobalamin; Epidemiology; Erythrocytes; Female; Folic acid; Hemoglobin; hospital diet; Hospitalization - statistics & numerical data; Hospitals; Humans; Inpatients - statistics & numerical data; Internal Medicine; Length of Stay; Leukocytes; Lymphocyte Count - methods; Lymphocytes; Male; Males; Malnutrition; Malnutrition - epidemiology; Medical sciences; Medicine; Medicine & Public Health; men; Metabolic Diseases; Middle Aged; Nutrient deficiency; Nutrition; Nutrition assessment; Nutritional status; Nutritional Status - physiology; original-communication; Other nutritional diseases (malnutrition, nutritional and vitamin deficiencies...); Overweight; Patients; Poland - epidemiology; Prospective Studies; Protein-energy malnutrition; Public Health; risk factors; Serum albumin; Sex Factors; Vitamin A; Vitamin B12; vitamin deficiencies; Vitamin deficiency; Vitamin E; Vitamins; Vitamins - blood; women
• ISSN: 0954-3007; 1476-5640
• DOI: 10.1038/sj.ejcn.1602117

Aim: Screening and extended assessment of the nutritional status of patients on admission and on discharge from hospital were carried out. Description: The studies were carried out in four teaching hospitals, four provincial hospitals and four county hospitals in Poland. Subjects: Screening examinations were carried out for 3310 randomly selected patients (every 10th patient admitted to hospital, including 1916 female cases aged from 16 to 92 y and 1394 male patients aged from 16 to 100 y). Extended examinations were carried out on 210 patients aged from 16 to 87 y (including 122 female and 88 male). Main assessment parameters: Anthropometric (height, weight, body mass index (BMI), waist-to-hip ratio (WHR), arm circumference) and biochemical indices (erythrocyte count, haemoglobin concentration, white blood cell count, blood lymphocyte count and serum albumin serum concentration). The extended examinations included determination of antioxidant vitamins (A, C, E), vitamin B12 and folic acid. Results: On admission to hospital, 10.43% of the patients surveyed had a BMI below 20 kg/m2, in 20.74% of patients serum albumin concentration was below 3.5 g/dl, indicating possible protein energy malnutrition. In addition, 21.02% had lymphocyte count below 1.5 x 10(3)/mm3. During hospitalisation, deterioration in the nutritional status of the patient population occurred. On discharge from hospital, the percentage of patients with BMI