ABSTRACT
Background: Malnutrition is an underdiagnosed condition that negatively affects the clinical outcomes of patients, being associated with an increased risk of adverse events, increased hospital stay, and higher mortality. Therefore, nutritional assessment is a required and necessary process in patient care. The objective of this study was to identify the factors associated with nutritional risk by applying the Malnutrition Universal Screening Tool (MUST) scale in a population of critically ill patients. Methods: This was an observational, analytical, and retrospective study. Sociodemographic, clinical, hematological, and biochemical variables and their relationship with nutritional risk and mortality were analyzed. Results: Of 630 patients, the leading cause of admission was pathologies of the circulatory and respiratory system (50%); 28.4% were at high nutritional risk; and mortality was 11.6% and associated with nutritional risk, hemoglobin, and plasma urea nitrogen. Conclusions: The presence of gastrointestinal symptoms and the type of nutritional support received during hospitalization could increase the likelihood of presenting a medium/high nutritional risk, while polycythemia reduced this probability. An associative model was found to determine nutritional risk with an adequate specificity and diagnostic validity index.
ABSTRACT
Intensive care unit (ICU) hospitalization involves critically ill patients with multiple diseases and possible complications, including malnutrition, which increases hospital stay and mortality. Therefore, identifying the patient's prior nutritional state, following up during hospitalization, and implementing early intervention positively affect patient's vital situations at discharge. The objective of this study is to determine the nutritional state of patients admitted to an ICU in Cali (Colombia) in 2019 and its association with immunological and biochemical parameters and mortality observed during hospitalization. This was an observational, analytical, and retrospective study of patients admitted to an ICU in a clinic in Cali (Colombia) from 1 January to 31 March 2019. The association between their nutritional state and outcome variables such as hospital stay, immunological and biochemical function, and mortality was analyzed. Logistic regression was used to predict patients' vital status at hospital discharge. In terms of the nutritional level, low weight was observed in 17.5% patients, and overweight/obesity was observed in 53.5% of the population. Nutritional state was associated with leukocytosis. The patients with lymphocytosis had longer hospital stays than those with normal lymphocyte ranges. Age, blood leukocytes, and creatinine and potassium levels increased the risk of mortality. Lymphocyte values have been used as predictors of severity and hospitalization time. The scientific literature has also evidenced a higher leukocyte count in people with obesity, and such leukocytosis is associated with the risk of mortality. The results of blood and laboratory tests determining kidney function and blood electrolytes allow for the prediction of mortality risk in critically ill patients.
