The future of nutrition care in hospitals

Abstract

Malnutrition affects up to 50% of hospitalised patients (Ray et al., 2014; Barker et al., 2011) and has severe consequences for patients and the health care system. Malnutrition increases the risks of mortality (Lim et al., 2012) and complications like pressure injuries (Banks et al., 2010), infections (Schaible and Stefan, 2007) and falls (Vivanti et al., 2011) and is associated with increased length of stay, readmissions and higher hospital costs (Lim et al., 2012). Inadequate dietary intake is the major modifiable risk factor for malnutrition and the majority of patients fail to meet their nutritional needs in hospital (Thibault et al., 2011). Improving dietary intakes among hospitalised patients is difficult as the problem is complex and multifactorial. Patient related factors include poor appetite; nutrition impacting symptoms such as nausea or constipation; problems with self-feeding; chewing or swallowing problems; increased nutrition requirements; older age and individual preferences (Sanson et al., 2018; Vanderwee et al., 2010; Kubrak and Jensen, 2007). Hospital related factors encompass nutrition care practices, hospital foodservice and the mealtime environment (Kubrak and Jensen, 2007).