TY - JOUR T1 - Clinical and financial implications of disease-related malnutrition in a department of Internal Medicine: Prospective cohort study JO - Revista Clínica Española (English Edition) T2 - AU - Ballesteros-Pomar,M.D. AU - Calleja-Fernández,A. AU - González-Valdés,M. AU - Pintor-de la Maza,B. AU - Villar Taibo,R. AU - Vidal-Casariego,A. AU - Urioste-Fondo,A. AU - Torres-Torres,B. AU - de Luis-Román,D. AU - Cano-Rodríguez,I. SN - 22548874 M3 - 10.1016/j.rceng.2016.07.001 DO - 10.1016/j.rceng.2016.07.001 UR - https://www.revclinesp.es/en-clinical-financial-implications-disease-related-malnutrition-articulo-S2254887416300601 AB - BackgroundDisease-related malnutrition is a challenge for Spanish hospitals. Our objective was to assess the feasibility and importance of establishing a nutritional screening strategy in our community. Patients and methodsA prospective cohort study was conducted in a department of internal medicine for 3 months. The nutritional screening was conducted at admission and was repeated weekly using the Malnutrition Universal Screening Tool. We analysed the clinical data, mean stay and expenses. ResultsThe study included 330 patients (53.9% men), with a mean age of 77.8 years. The mean stay was 7 days, and the Charlson comorbidity index was 5.4. At admission, the Malnutrition Universal Screening Tool detected 26.9% of patients with a risk of malnutrition. Eighteen percent of the patients with a good nutritional state developed malnutrition during the hospitalisation. The patients with initially severe malnutrition had a longer mean stay. The patients whose nutritional state worsened during the hospitalisation had a significantly longer stay (2.5 days) compared with those whose state did not worsen. These cases of malnutrition caused a cost overrun of €767 per hospitalisation (35% greater), which entailed a malnutrition-related excess expenditure of €646,419.93 annually in the studied department. The appropriate coding resulted in an increase in mean weight from 2.11 to 2.81, which represented €82,568.52 and has not been previously quantified. ConclusionThe high prevalence and clinical and financial implications of disease-related malnutrition in patients hospitalised in internal medicine warrants establishing protocols for its early detection and treatment. ER -