Early recognition and optimal treatment of malnutrition before, during and after hospital admission (WC2008-060)

Background

Starting date: 01/08/2008 Approximately 25-40% of hospital inpatients are malnourished. Disease related malnutrition is associated with reduction of muscle mass, respiratory function and immune function, impaired wound healing and higher care complexity, resulting in increased morbidity and mortality, lengthened hospital stay and increasing costs of health care. In the hospital setting, there is growing awareness that undernutrition plays an important role in the course of treatment of patients. Hospital inpatient departments have implemented screening programs in order to early detect malnourished patients and to treat them optimally. However, obstacles in implementation are experienced and the prevalence of undernutrition at hospital admission has only slightly decreased in the past years, indicating that the problem of malnutrition has to be found in outpatient departments as well. Obstacles and success factors in implementation of screening and treatment of malnutrition need to be investigated in order to successfully establish early detection and optimal treatment of malnutrition in hospital inpatients and outpatients.