Pharmacy Assistant - Green Cross Publishing

nutrition
how do we recognise
malnutrition?
As so many issues surrounding nutrition become more
and more topical, we must not forget to look at the
ever increasing problem of malnutrition in society.
It is reported that malnutrition affects up to 60 per
cent of patients admitted to hospitals, which must
lead us to believe that it frequently goes undetected
and untreated in the community.
So, how can we define malnutrition? There is
no generally accepted definition, but it can be
summarised as a poor nutritional state, most
commonly under nutrition due to shortage of
energy or deficiency of all or certain nutrients.
It is well documented that poor nutrition has a
significant negative effect on the quality of life of
patients; this is particularly true of elderly patients.
Poor nutrition can:
- delay wound healing
- reduce a patient’s response to therapy
- decrease a patient’s resistance to infection.
The provision of oral nutrition supplements is
an effective means of enabling patients to meet
their nutritional requirements, thereby improving
associated problems, such as poor wound healing
and reducing the incidence of infections, depression
and fatigue (Breslow 1993, Martyn et al 1998). While
these and many other problems can be commonly
associated with the acute hospital setting, there
are studies that show the impact in the community
setting also. Studies have indicated that when
compared with non-malnourished patients,
malnourished patients have:
- a six per cent higher GP consultation rate
- require nine per cent more prescriptions
- have a 25 per cent higher hospital admission rate
(Martyn et al 1998).
Whereas severe malnutrition is easily recognised,
less severe forms of malnutrition may be more
difficult to identify.
In order to treat the underlying malnutrition we
pharmacy assistant 7