Objective: Malnutrition is quite prevalent in hospitalized patients, and its diagnosis is particularly important for doctors in order to treat it accordingly. This study aims in finding the frequency of malnutrition in ambulatory hospitalized patients based on three international criteria.
Methods: The subjects of this study were hospitalized patients at Cipto Mangunkusumo Hospital, Jakarta, Indonesia. The subjects were investigated for malnutrition using World Health Organization (WHO), American Society for Parenteral and Enteral Nutrition (ASPEN), and the European Society for Clinical Nutrition and Metabolism (ESPEN) criteria for malnutrition. Two hundred and twenty-nine ambulatory hospitalized patients were subject to accurate anthropometry measurements. They were analyzed for their height using Seca-360 and their weight using Seca-869, from which their body mass index could be measured. They were also examined for their handgrip strength using Jamar® Handgrip Dynamometer. The rest of the criteria were fulfilled through subjective history taking.
Results: The proportion of malnutrition at Cipto Mangunkusumo hospital was 20.1% when assessed using WHO malnutrition criteria. Meanwhile, about 48.5% of the subjects had malnutrition when assessed using ASPEN criteria. About 42.8% of subjects were categorized as malnutrition according to ESPEN criteria.
Conclusions: The highest proportion of hospital malnutrition is based on ASPEN, followed by ESPEN, and the latter is WHO. ESPEN is more likely to capture malnutrition in chronic conditions, whereas ASPEN is more suitable in acute conditions rather than in chronic ones. ESPEN data would be more accurate when done appropriately according to its guidelines (with the use of a validated instrument).
Keywords: Malnutrition, World Health Organization, Hospitals, Nutrition Assessment, Ambulatory..