Hospital food is never a joy for gourmets, but for some patients it means a fatal risk – this is the conclusion of a study conducted by scientists in Switzerland.
People hospitalized with chronic heart failure should be fed fresh and balanced meals, ScienceAlert writes, noting that a typical hospital food tray is not the kind of medicine patients need.
Conducted in Switzerland among 645 people hospitalized with chronic heart failure, a randomized study found that those who were given a regular hospital meal – as opposed to an individual meal plan – faced a nearly doubled risk of death within 30 days.
The research materials were published in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology.
Findings suggest that nutritional deficiencies in most hospital foods can seriously compromise the health and well-being of vulnerable patients.
“Thus, our trial does not provide evidence for the effects of individual nutritional components,” the authors explain, “but rather suggests that an overall strategy for providing nutritional support to achieve different nutritional goals during an acute hospital stay is beneficial for patients with chronic heart failure “.
Within two days of hospitalization, half of the patients in the study received nutritional support from a qualified dietitian who helped them determine and achieve their energy, protein and micronutrient goals through individual nutrition and check-ups every one or two days.
These patients also received dietary counseling and nutritional supplements as needed before discharge.
The diet of the other half of the experimental group was largely ignored. During their stay, they received standard hospital meals “in accordance with their ability and desire to eat, without nutritional advice and advice for additional nutritional support.”
As it turned out, the two different diets were associated with significant differences in the quality and quantity of life.
After 180 days, about a quarter of patients who received nutritional counseling and support at the hospital died, indicating the severity of chronic heart failure. By comparison, however, about a third of those without dietary support died in the same period.
Instead of a menu based on the best scientific research in nutrition, hospital meals are often created out of a desire to save money.
While cutting corners like this may be harmless for most patients, for patients with particularly serious medical conditions, such as chronic heart failure, such a meal plan can ultimately prove fatal.
Eating processed and fatty foods can cause additional plaque to build up in the arteries, putting a person at an even greater risk of heart failure in the future. Evidence suggests that these patients should instead focus on fruits and vegetables, limiting salt and fluid intake.
But while previous research has shown that nutritional deficiencies are especially dangerous for people with chronic heart failure, there hasn’t been much research into how direct nutritional support can benefit patients.
The Swiss study was conducted in a relatively small number of patients, but the results nonetheless show that nutritional advice and support in the hospital can improve the patient’s quality of life and possibly even save his or her life, especially among those considered to be at high risk of malnutrition. …
Compared to patients at moderate risk of malnutrition, the authors found that patients at high risk were 65 percent more likely to die 180 days after admission to hospital. This group also showed the greatest benefit from nutritional support during the hospital stay.
It is unclear how these patients continued to eat after they were discharged from the hospital, but given that all patients had an average hospital stay of about 10 days, the results seem to suggest that many in the nutritional support group accepted at least some of the recommendations. …
“It is clear,” the study authors write, “that more trials are needed to support our findings regarding the population of patients with chronic heart failure, including ongoing outpatient treatment.”
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