Análisis de riesgo de desnutrición en pacientes internados en el Hospital Interzonal General de Agudos 'Prof. Dr. Ramón Carrillo'

摘要

Introduction: Malnutrition causes alterations in the structure and function of organs and systems, thus increasing morbidity, mortality and costs ofhospitalization.Objective: To determine the prevalence of malnutrition risk in hospitalized patients and evaluate the relation between nutritional risk and age, gender andhospital services.Methods: A cross sectional study was designed. The Malnutrition Screening Tool (MST) was used to evaluate 272 patients hospitalized in the "Prof. Dr.Ramón Carrillo" Hospital, from July 2013 to January 2014.Results: The average age was 58.9 (±20.5) years old. The survey showed that 31.7% of patients had nutritional risk. Female gender was significantlyassociated with presence of nutritional risk (p <0.002) and subjects aged 65 and over had the same association (p <0.001). The frequency of nutritionalrisk was more than double in general medical service compared with other services (OR = 2.60).Conclusion: In the admission of patients to hospital, it is necessary to carry out an early assessment of their nutritional risk, identify the factorsassociated with malnutrition risk and define an adequate nutritional treatment that improves the prognosis of hospitalization and the costs of hospitalstay in these patients. The MST is a simple and effective screening tool to achieve these objectives.