2023-11-15 09:55:46
Three out of ten hospitalized patients suffer from malnutrition related to the disease, a risk factor for death, which is why endocrinologists demand that professionals have specialized and updated training for its detection and treatment.
Disease-related malnutrition (DRE) originates from an intake of “inadequate” nutrients and energy with respect to the requirements of the person in a situation of disability or illness, which represent the core of the problem,” according to the Spanish Society of Endocrinology and Nutrition (SEEN).
Unlike malnutrition due to hunger, malnutrition related to illness affects the bodily changes and loss of functionality in relation to the inflammation that occur when there is an acute or chronic illness.
The prevalence
The SeDREno study, on the prevalence of hospital malnutrition and its relationship with complications during admission, ensures that 30% of hospitalized patients suffer from it. Number that increases up to 35% in the case of those over 70 years of age.
And depending on the disease, 48% of people with dysphagia suffer from malnutrition due to illness, as well as 43% of people with cognitive impairment; almost 40% of cancer patients; y 38% with gastrointestinal diseases.
35% of those with diabetes and 33% with cardiovascular diseases also suffer from it.
According to the study cited by the SEEN, women over 70 years of age who were admitted to the emergency services had malnutrition due to illness in a slightly higher percentage.
The diseases with the highest risk of malnutrition in hospitalized patients are, according to the same study, la diabetes, cancer and gastrointestinal disorderss.
It has not been given the necessary importance
From the Nutrition Area of the SEEN, Francisco Pita assures that the figures support the importance of addressing this malnutrition, which in a study from ten years ago, the PREDYCESindicated that it affected 25% of the population.
A study that Pita assures contributed to making visible a problem that has existed in hospitals for years, but “it had not been given the necessary importance.”
EFE/Raquel Manzanares
“By demonstrating that malnourished patients increased spending and hospital stay, we managed to draw attention by focusing on the management and consumption of resources,” says the endocrinologist.
This pathology, furthermore, increases readmission rate and has an impact on poor patient outcomes.
“It is a risk factor for mortality. If the nutritional status is not adequate, muscle function will not improve and there will be a greater risk of infections due to impaired immunity,” says the SEEN expert.
The need for specialized units
For this reason, he claims the importance of having specialized units in addressing this pathology, within the framework of malnutrition week, a few days ago.
And it does so so that professionals have “specialized and updated training” in the detection and treatment of this type of malnutrition to have the best possible results in health and in the effectiveness of the treatment.
In this sense, he emphasizes the need to incorporate dietitians-nutritionists in the nutrition units of hospitals in all autonomous communities. But also to carry out universal nutritional screening in both Primary and Hospital Care.
“The first thing is detection,” according to the expert, because if not, an adequate nutritional plan cannot be made.
Equity in financing treatments
In addition, la SEEN advocates for equity in the financing of nutritional treatment between the different autonomies, as well as in the review and expansion of the indications for financing of oral and enteral nutritional supplements.
“We can be very efficient in the detection and assessment of DRE, but if the patient cannot receive the necessary treatment, it represents wear and tear and consumption of resources, in addition to the helplessness of not being able to offer the patient the treatment they need,” says Pita.
And it emphasizes that if a person does not take care of themselves from a nutritional point of view, the diseases they suffer or that are diagnosed “will have a worse evolution.”
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