Saneela Saleem*, Faran Khan, Sheeza Imtiaz and Sajid Khan Tahir
University of Veterinary and Animal Sciences, Lahore, Pakistan
*Corresponding Author: Saneela Saleem, University of Veterinary and Animal Sciences, Lahore, Pakistan.
Received: November 22, 2019; Published: December 06, 2019
Reasons of malnutrition are decreased food intake and appetite due to illness gastrointestinal symptoms, compromised ability to chew or swallow (dysphagia), Nil per os (NPO) status for diagnostic and therapeutic procedures. A cross-sectional study was conducted in tertiary care hospitals of Lahore. The point prevalence of malnutrition was determined by using MUST. Patients who were terminally ill were excluded from study. Demographic features including name, age, social status and diseased condition was recorded. Other possible methods were adopted to assess weight and height for those patients who were unable to stand. Nutritional intake of patient was assessed for past 5 days which would be related to the acute disease effect score. History of weight loss for past 3-6 months was recorded. By using data, scores were determined for BMI, weight loss and acute disease effect. On the basis of total score, patients were categorized in low, medium and high risk for malnutrition. 56.3% patients were at high risk of malnutrition and only 14% patients had normal BMI score. 58.4% patients had >10% and 28.1% patients had 5-10% unintentional weight loss in past 3-6 months. Energy and protein intake increased after nutrition education. Average protein intake increased from 0.65 g/kg/day to 1.29 g/kg/day. The MUST was an easy and effective method to define the point prevalence of malnutrition in Pakistani patients Moreover, system-wide screening method can bring the best practices in nutrition care by involving stakeholders and decision makers in addressing any shortcomings in nutrition care and in forming baseline for future nutritional interventions.
Keywords: Nutrition Screening; Lahore; MUST (Malnutrition Universal Screening Tool)
Citation: Saneela Saleem.,et al. "Nutrition Screening of Elderly Patients Hospitalized in Tertiary Care Hospitals in Lahore by using MUST".Acta Scientific Nutritional Health 4.1 (2020): 40-43.
Copyright: © 2020 Saneela Saleem.,et al. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.