Protein-calorie intakes of hospital patients

Food in Hospitals, a report published by the Nuffield Provincial Hospital Trust, described the results of a study of the nutritive value of food in a survey of 152 provincial non-teaching hospitals.The hospitals were selected at random, and in each hospital the food taken by one patient on a full normal diet, also selected at random, was measured over a period of 24 h.The methods of sampling are fully described in the published report (Platt, Eddy & Pellett, 1963).Much of the work done upon the protein quality of the food taken by patients in hospital was considered to be too technical for inclusion in the original report, though some of the conclusions and recommendations in the report were based upon the detailed evaluation of protein-calorie intakes.The methods used and the results obtained are now described in this paper. M E T H O D S Chs$cation of patientsAccording to each sampled patient's presumed need, the diets were classified into three groups: maintenance-diets for patients admitted for over 6 months, and a few others with a history of long periods in hospital for a chronic complaint, or of longstanding chronic disease ; recuperative-diets for patients on short admissions for ordinary acute diseases or trauma, or for recent incidents occurring in degenerative diseases, for example, recent cardiac infarction ; mental-diets for patients in hospitals for mental illness, many but not all of whom were fully active and helped with the hospital work.Excluding unweighed and 'overweight' patients, i.e. those whose weights were in excess of the highest limits given for ideal weight for a 'large frame' by the Metropolitan Life Assurance Company (1959), fifty-eight were classified for a recuperative diet, sixteen for maintenance and thirteen as mental; of the patients classified as overweight twenty-two patients were for recuperative diets, twelve for maintenance diets and seven were mental. Analysis of mealsThe chemical analysis of each meal included the determination of metabolizable energy, crude protein (K x 6.25) and sulphur.Analytical procedures including an improved method for total S are fully described elsewhere (Pellett & Eddy, 1964).