Introduction Schizophrenia is a chronic, severe, and disabling neuropsychiatric disorder. In recent years, growing evidence suggests that nutrition may be strongly involved in the onset, progression, and management of schizophrenia. However, few studies have examined the prevalence and characteristics of malnutrition risk among long-term hospitalized patients with schizophrenia in China. This preliminary feasibility study aimed to assess the current status of nutritional risk in patients with schizophrenia and to clarify the factors associated with malnutrition risk in this population in China. Methods A total of 499 patients with schizophrenia hospitalized at the Shanghai Third Mental Health Center between March and September 2019 were enrolled. Clinical characteristics and laboratory parameters were collected. Nutritional risk was evaluated using the Nutritional Risk Screening 2002 (NRS2002) tool, and patients were categorized into a nutritional-risk group and a non-nutritional-risk group. General clinical data and laboratory indices were compared between the two groups, and correlation analysis was conducted to explore associations between these variables and NRS2002 scores. Multivariate logistic regression was applied to identify factors independently associated factors of nutritional risk. Receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve analysis of the discriminative performance of relevant indicators for predicting nutritional risk was also conducted. Results Of the 499 patients with schizophrenia included in this study cohort, 22.44% were identified as being at nutritional risk. Patients in the nutritional-risk group were significantly older, had a longer duration of hospitalization, and had a lower body mass index (BMI) than those in the non-nutritional-risk group. Levels of hemoglobin, total protein, and albumin were also significantly reduced in the nutritional-risk group. Correlation analysis revealed that NRS2002 scores were positively correlated with age and length of hospital stay, whereas hemoglobin, total protein, albumin, and BMI were negatively correlated with NRS2002 scores. Multivariate logistic regression analysis demonstrated that age was independently associated with nutritional risk in patients with schizophrenia, while BMI served as an independent protective factor. ROC curve analysis further indicated that BMI had substantial discriminative performance for identifying nutritional risk in this population. Conclusion Nutritional risk prevalence among patients with schizophrenia is relatively high. Older patients and those with a lower BMI require particular attention. Early nutritional assessment and timely nutritional intervention may facilitate recovery and improve clinical outcomes in this population.
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