[The complications of enteral nutrition in medical wards]. / Le complicanze della Nutrizione Enterale nei reparti di medicina.

. The complications of enteral nutrition in medical wards. INTRODUCTION: The effects of Enteral Nutrition (EN) in patients unable to feed themselves have been widely explored although studies in low-/mean- intensity words are lacking. AIM: To measure the prevalence of EN side effects in medical wards and to explore their risk factors. Metodi. Observational, retrospective study on matched patients. All patients in the medical departments of the Azienda Ospedaliero-Universitaria Senese were enrolled (81 cases and 162 controls) from 1 August 2018 to 1 September 2019, aged over 50 years and hospitalized for longer than 4 days. The NE side effects such as diarrhea, vomiting, gastric stagnation and abdominal pain were collected from clinical records The presence of EN, age of patients, mobilization and use of antibiotics during hospitalization were considered risk factors. RESULTS: The prevalence of diarrhea, vomiting, gastric and abdominal pain ranged from 4.9% to 11.1%. The EN was not a significant risk factor for the onset of gastrointestinal disorders, and these complications were always lower than in the controls. Vomiting, diarrhea and abdominal pain were more frequently, though not significantly, associated to antibiotic treatments; the age of subjects significantly predicted the diarrhea, showing a protective effect with the age increase. CONCLUSIONS: The study shows a low prevalence of diarrhoea, vomiting and abdominal pain compared to the literature. These symptoms were not significantly associated to the EN, that cannot be considered a risk factor.

Night work and quality of life. A study on the health of nurses.

BACKGROUND: Job quality and evaluation of workers' health have both medical and social important implications. We studied health-related quality of life (HRQL) in nurses who perform their activity in night shifts. METHODS: A cross-sectional study was conducted between October and November 2014. Nurses who attended night shift in the Siena Teaching Hospital (Azienda Ospedaliera Universitaria Senese - AOUS) were sampled using EpiInfo software (confidence interval 95%) and investigated using the SF-36 Questionnaire. Our results were compared with the Italian general population (Apolone, 1997). A Descriptive analysis was conducted. Wilcoxon test, Pearson coefficient, t-test, Wilcoxon signed-rank test and logistic regression were used for the statistical investigation. RESULTS: 197 questionnaires were analyzed. Females were 71.7%; mean age was 39.2 years (DS 8.6); smokers were 37.8%. Males scores were higher than those of females in all dimensions of physical and mental health (p <0.05). The time taken to reach the place of work appeared to influence the dimension of General Health (coeff. -0.17); we found a worsening of 0.17 points of this dimension for every minute spent in travel. Men and nurses with more working years had a better score in Physical Pain dimension. AOUS nurses scored significantly (p <0.05) less compared with the correspondent Italian general population in General Health, Energy-fatigue, Social functioning, Physical functioning and Bodily pain. CONCLUSIONS: There is a significant relationship between night work and HRQL of nurses. The health profile of AOUS nurses' ranks below the values of the Italian general population in various dimensions.