Prevalence of Malnutrition among Hospitalized Medical Intensive Care Unit Patients in a University Hospital, Cairo, Egypt: Hospital Based Survey

摘要

Background/Aims: Malnutrition in critically ill adults in the intensive care unit (ICU) is a serious public health problem that has been associated with a significantly elevated risk of infectious and non-infectious complications. This study aimed to estimate the prevalence of malnutrition among adult patients admitted to medical ICU. Methods: This was a hospital based prospective cross-sectional study carried out for 3 months in medical ICU of the internal medicine ward in AL-Zahra University hospital, Cairo, Egypt. Patients were evaluated for the nutritional status by using subjective global assessment (SGA) within the first 24 hours of admission. Results: A total of 68 patients were participated in the study (61.1±13.3 years; 54.4% females). According to SGA, 50% of ICU patients were malnourished either mild/moderate (35.3%) or severely malnourished (14.7%). Malnourished patients had a mortality rate of (55.9%) versus well-nourished group (26.5%). Conclusions: Malnutrition was highly prevalent among critically ill patients in medical ICU and increased the risk of mortality. Nutritional screening is mandatory in ICU sitting to initiate timely nutritional therapy.