P92 | The prevalence of hospital protein-energy malnutrition in an Internal Medicine department: preliminary data

Background and Purpose of the study: Hospital protein-energy malnutrition represents a frequent phenomenon, although little recognized and despite being a critical, widespread and expensive problem. There can be multiple organic causes, including age-related, pathology-related, social, environmental and psychological. Our study aims to evaluate the prevalence of malnutrition and the impact on patient outcome in a general medicine department.Materials and Methods: Were administered in November 2023, upon admission 64 MNA-SF questionnaires to identify malnourished subjects or at risk of malnutrition. Subjective global assessment was used to evaluate the relationship between nutritional status and average length of stay and hospital costs while controlling for health and demographic characteristics.Results: Preliminary data show that the average hospital stay is 13.4 days. Of the analyzed sample of 22 women and 42 men, 19% have a normal nutritional status, 38% are at risk of malnutrition and 44% are malnourished. There is also a significant correlation between malnourished subjects and an increase in average hospital stay equal to 15.3 days.Conclusions: although malnutrition is a known problem, there is still a high prevalence of uninvestigated people. In addition to the diagnosis, it would be appropriate to implement the screening and prevention phase of malnutrition, in order to record an increasingly smaller number of cases and healthcare costs.