engleski

APPLICATION OF NRS 2002 METHOD IN NUTRITIONAL RISK ASSESSMENT OF ELDERLY PATIENTS HOSPITALIZED IN VARAŽDIN GENERAL HOSPITAL

Increasing incidences of nosocomial infections (sepsis, pneumonia, urinary tract infections), prolonged hospitalizations, higher treatment costs, high mortality rate are sufficient reasons for the need for early and effective interventions aimed at prevention, and then treatment of the causes of malnutrition among the elderly. Research conducted on the Croatian population proves that nutritional risk increases with age and that age is an independent predictor of length of hospital stay. Prevention of malnutrition in hospital patients must be a priority for all health professionals and requires multidisciplinary collaboration. The aim of the study was to detect how many hospitalized patients are at nutritional risk. We examined 66 patients with a lower age limit of 65 years hospitalized in the General Hospital Varaždin in (Republic of Croatia) for a period of 3 months. The standard Nutritional Risk Screening method from 2002 (NRS 2002) recommended by the European Society of Clinical Nutrition and Metabolism (ESPEN) was used to assess both nutritional status and risk of elderly patients. The obtained data were analyzed by the statistical program SPSS 23 from IBM with a descriptive and graphical representation. Of the total number of subjects, 70% of them were exposed to nutritional risk and required nutritional support, while it was needed for 30% of subjects to repeat nutritional screening once a week. In the group of patients with malignant disease, as many as 89% of patients were at nutritional risk (NRS≥3), which is a difference compared to the group of non- malignant patients. The nutritional status of patients generally deteriorates if they suffer from a malignant disease that progresses intensively. Numerous studies show that malnutrition is a common problem among the elderly, and the simplest way to solve this problem is to introduce a routine method of assessing nutritional status for all elderly and oncology patients who are at increased nutritional risk from the very admission to the hospital.

Elderly population, Oncology patients, Nutritional risk assessment, NRS 2002.

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