Nutritional differences in malnourished patients according to their liquid-intake habits after hospital discharge

Introduction: Malnutrition is a serious and relatively common problem among hospitalized patients; moreover, it is known that a good hydration state contributes to health and wellbeing. Objective: The aim of this study was to determine the relationship between nutritional status, functional dependency, quality of life and liquid-intake habits in malnourished patients after hospital discharge. Methods: Cross-sectional descriptive study in 91 patients (45 males) who presented malnutrition at hospital discharge. The patients were grouped according to their liquid intake estimated through the Mini Nutritional Assessment questionnaire: 3-5 glasses (n = 42), and &gt; 5 glasses (n = 46); removing from analysis < 3 glasses of liquid intake (n = 3). The body mass index, weight, Malnutrition Universal Screening Tool (MUST), functional dependency (Barthel questionnaire), and quality of life (Short Form 12 Health Survey [SF-12]) were assessed 2-months after discharge. Results: The &gt; 5 glasses liquid intake group showed better nutritional status than the 3-5 glasses intake group, for weight (p < 0.001), body mass index (p = 0.001), and MUST scale (p = 0.020). Additionally, the &gt; 5 glasses liquid intake group significantly scored higher values in the total SF-12 questionnaire (p = 0.013), presenting better self-reported quality of life, and higher functional independency in the Barthel index (p = 0.037) than the 3-5 glasses liquid intake group (p = 0.013). Conclusions: Although further research is needed to elucidate the characteristics of this relationship, descriptive comparisons between groups showed favorable nutritional status, functional independency and quality of life for the &gt; 5 glasses of liquid intake compared with the 3-5 glasses of liquid intake group during a 2-months follow-up.

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Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Casals,Cristina, Vázquez Sánchez,María Ángeles, Casals Sánchez,José Luis, Suárez-Cadenas,Ernesto
Format: Digital revista
Language:English
Published: Grupo Arán 2016
Online Access:http://scielo.isciii.es/scielo.php?script=sci_arttext&pid=S0212-16112016000900003
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