Abstract

Author(s): Francine Cagol 1; Alessandra Doumid Borges Pretto2; Catiússa Colling1;

Introduction: The Neoplasms cause numerous consequences for patients and that appropriate nutritional interventions are needed in order to reduce the adverse effects and improve the quality of life of these patients.

Objectives: Compare the nutritional status according to the site of tumor location whereas two nutritional diagnosis methods.

Methods: Cross-sectional study using secondary data, performed at the outpatient clinic, between May 2010 and May 2012.Were included cancer patients aged 18 years old or more (n=189). The nutritional status was evaluated by the Body Mass Index and the Patient-Generated Subjective Global Assessment.Socioeconomic data, disease’s and treatment’s characteristics were collected from the nutritional anamnesis.This research was approved by the Ethics Committee responsible for the Hospital.

Results: The most prevalent tumor location was breast (21.2%), followed by esophagus (11.4%).The nutritional status, according to body mass index, showed that 12.4% of the patients were underweight, 39% eutrophic and 48.6% overweight. According to Patient-Generated Subjective Global Assessment, 41.4% of the patients were well nourished, observing 58.6% of some degree of malnutrition on the sample. Tumors with highest malnutrition prevalence, were head and neck (45.5%) and gastrointestinal tract (38.1%).

Discussion: Studies show that the subjective global assessment produced by the patient presents high specificity in identifying malnourished patients with diagnosis of cancer.

Conclusion: The subjective global assessment produced by the patient was the method that showed more malnourished patients and should be used in clinical practice.