Abstract

Author(s): Do Carmo Fontana Calazans, Fernanda1; Regina Guandalini, Valdete2; Blaser Petarli, Glenda3; Araújo Guedes de Moraes, Rafael4; Tintore Cuzzuol, Jamila5; Pereira Cruz, Rebecca5

Introduction: Malnutrition is common among hospitalized patients and several methods can be applied in order to identify patients at nutritional risk as early as possible.

Objectives: To identify hospital malnutrition in patients eligible for surgery through screening tools and nutritional assessment, as well as the correlation between them.

Methods: This is a descriptive study that was carried out at a public hospital. Patients were submitted to screening and nutritional assessment through Nutri tional Risk Screening (NRS-2002), Subjective Global Assess - ment (SGA) and Body Mass Index (BMI) within 48 hours of hospital admission. The software BioEstat 5.0, with a significance level of 5%, was used for data analysis.

Results: 60 patients eligible for elective surgery who were 45,12 ± 15,70 years old were evaluated. From these patients, 33 (55,0%) were men, 31 (51,6%) had brown skin, 22 (36,6%) had not finished high school, 35 (58,6%) were married and 52 (86,6%) exerted paid activity. Results showed 4 (6,7%) malnourished patients according to the BMI, 8 (13,3%) patients at nutritional risk based on NRS 2002 and 14 (23,3%) malnourished patients according to the SGA. There was weak correlation between NRS-2002 and SGA (k=0,234/p=0,055), despite the high correlation in the category of well-nourished patients (80,7%).

Conclusion: The presence of malnutrition was observed through different assessment methods, with an emphasis on the SGA. The complementarity of the methods applied can improve the efficiency and accuracy in diagnosing the nutritional status, prevent complications associated with malnutrition and facilitate early nutrition intervention.