Nutritional assessment of hospitalized patients: Comparison of real and estimated anthropometric measures

ABSTRACT The assessment of the nutritional status of hospitalized patients is fundamental to the establishment of the diagnosis. For bedridden patients, however, it is not possible to determine simple measures, such as weight and height, which are the most widely used variables for nutritional assessments. Objective: Compare real and estimated anthropometric measures in hospitalized patients. Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted with adult (>18 years of age) and senior patients (>60 years of age) admitted for clinical or surgical treatment in the general surgery infirmary of Governador Paulo Guerra Restauração Hospital. Data (sex, age, clinical diagnosis, real weight, real height, body mass index, knee height and arm circumference) were collected using nutritional follow-up charts and tabulated using Excel 2016. Statistical analyses were performed in SPSS® version 21.0. Results: One hundred and twenty patients participated in the study (median age: 55 years). Most were adults (73.3%) and women (53.3%). The mean differences in weight between the estimated and real measures were statistically significant (p=0.000), with an overestimation of this variable. Regarding height, the estimated values differed significantly from the real values in both men and women (p<0.000) and the difference was larger among the seniors (mean: -0.072). No significant difference was found between the real and estimated body mass index (p= 0.44). Conclusion: In the comparison of methods for estimating weight and height to real measures, a tendency was found to overestimate these body measures.

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Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Lucchesi,Fabiana de Arruda, Soares,Bruna Lúcia de Mendonça, Lemos,Joyce Canuto Rocha, Duque Moura,Lúcia Maria, Gadelha,Patrícia Calado Ferreira Pinheiro
Format: Digital revista
Language:English
Published: Sociedad Chilena de Nutrición, Bromatología y Toxicología 2021
Online Access:http://www.scielo.cl/scielo.php?script=sci_arttext&pid=S0717-75182021000100067
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