[WHO Guideline for the Pharmacological Treatment of Hypertension in Adults]. / WHO-Leitlinie: Leitfaden für die medikamentöse Behandlung von Bluthochdruck bei Erwachsenen.

BACKGROUND: Every year, more people die from cardiovascular diseases than from any other cause. Hypertension significantly increases the risk of heart, brain, kidney, and other diseases. The last World Health Organization (WHO) guideline on hypertension was published in 1999 and is now outdated. OBJECTIVE: The new WHO guideline of 2021 provides the most up-to-date recommendations for the pharmacological treatment of adult patients with hypertension. The aim of this study was to provide an overview of the WHO guideline translated into German and to summarize the main recommendations. METHOD: The guideline was developed by WHO in accordance with WHO standards. The executive summary was translated into German by the WHO Collaborating Centre for Evidence-based Medicine at the University of Continuing Education Krems (Austria). RESULTS: WHO provides recommendations on blood pressure thresholds for initiating pharmacological treatment, the performance of examinations before initiating treatment, the choice of medication, target blood pressure, the frequency of assessments, and treatment by nonphysician professionals. CONCLUSION: This evidence-based global public health guideline from WHO captures the most up-to-date key recommendations for the pharmacological treatment of hypertension in adults.

Nutritional risk is associated with an increase of in-hospital mortality and a reduction of being discharged home: Results of the 2009-2015 nutritionDay survey.

BACKGROUND: Disease-related malnutrition is a known factor for poor outcomes. However, there is a lack of knowledge about the prevalence and the impact of nutritional risk on outcomes in Colombia. The aim of the present study was to determine the prevalence of nutritional risk, to know how nutrition screening is routinely performed and to determine the impact of nutritional risk on the outcomes of in-hospital mortality and being discharged home outcomes. METHODS: We conducted a descriptive analysis of selected data from 7 consecutive, annual, and cross-sectional nutritionDay samples (2009-2015) including a total of 7,994 adult patients in 248 units in Colombia. Data is contrasted with the Latin American and worldwide results. The prevalence of nutritional risk was determined according to the malnutrition screening tool (MST). The impact of nutritional risk in Colombian patients regarding outcomes was assessed by a Fine and Gray competing risk regression model controlling for PANDORA score (age, BMI, length of stay before nutritionDay, cancer diagnosis, and mobility). RESULTS: The prevalence of nutritional risk (MST score ≥ 2) in Colombia was 38%, 41% in Latin America, and 32% worldwide. Half of the Colombian units screened patients for malnutrition or nutritional risk on admission to hospital, compared to 80% in Latin America and 62% worldwide. Only 23% of the Colombian patients identified as being at nutritional risk in the nutritionDay survey received any nutritional therapy. The hospital mortality hazard ratio of Colombian patients at nutritional risk defined by MST was 1.94 (95% CI, 1.53,2.46; p < 0.001) and 0.82 of being discharged home (95% CI, 0.76,0.88, p < 0.001). CONCLUSIONS: This is the first large-scale study in Colombia evaluating the impact of nutritional risk on clinical outcomes showing an increase of in-hospital mortality and a reduction of being discharged home. Moreover, the study shows that nutritional risk is still highly prevalent worldwide implying the need to promote an optimal nutritional care. The participation of Latin American countries in the nutritionDay survey is an opportunity to increase knowledge and awareness of these issues.

Hospital Malnutrition, a Call for Political Action: A Public Health and NutritionDay Perspective.

Disease-related malnutrition (DRM) is prevalent in hospitals and is associated with increased care needs, prolonged hospital stay, delayed rehabilitation and death. Nutrition care process related activities such as screening, assessment and treatment has been advocated by scientific societies and patient organizations but implementation is variable. We analysed the cross-sectional nutritionDay database for prevalence of nutrition risk factors, care processes and outcome for medical, surgical, long-term care and other patients (n = 153,470). In 59,126 medical patients included between 2006 and 2015 the prevalence of recent weight loss (45%), history of decreased eating (48%) and low actual eating (53%) was more prevalent than low BMI (8%). Each of these risk factors was associated with a large increase in 30 days hospital mortality. A similar pattern is found in all four patient groups. Nutrition care processes increase slightly with the presence of risk factors but are never done in more than 50% of the patients. Only a third of patients not eating in hospital receive oral nutritional supplements or artificial nutrition. We suggest that political action should be taken to raise awareness and formal education on all aspects related to DRM for all stakeholders, to create and support responsibilities within hospitals, and to create adequate reimbursement schemes. Collection of routine and benchmarking data is crucial to tackle DRM.

Prevalence of Malnutrition Risk and the Impact of Nutrition Risk on Hospital Outcomes: Results From nutritionDay in the U.S.

BACKGROUND: Malnutrition risk estimates vary greatly, and no robust data on the association between food intake and outcomes exist for hospitals in the United States (U.S.). This study aimed to determine the prevalence of malnutrition risk and to evaluate the impact of food intake on mortality using the nutritionDay in the U.S. dataset. METHODS: This study analyzed data from 2009 to 2015 for all adult patients from participating hospitals. Prevalence of malnutrition risk was determined by mapping self-reported nutritionDay survey questions to the Malnutrition Screening Tool (MST). Fine and Gray competing-risk analysis with clustering was used to evaluate the impact of nutrition risk and food intake on patients' 30-day in-hospital mortality, while controlling for age, mobility, and other disease-related factors. RESULTS: Analysis included data from 9959 adult patients from 601 wards. The overall prevalence of malnutrition risk (MST score ≥2) was 32.7%. On nutritionDay, 32.1% of patients ate a quarter of their meal or less. Hospital mortality hazard ratio was 3.24 (95% CI: [1.73, 6.07]; P-value < 0.001) for patients eating a quarter compared with those who ate all their meal and increased to 5.99 (95% CI: [3.03, 11.84]; P-value < 0.0001) for patients eating nothing despite being allowed to eat. CONCLUSION: This study provides the most robust estimate of malnutrition risk in U.S. hospitalized patients to date, finding that approximately 1 in 3 are at risk. Additionally, patients who have diminished meal intake experience increased mortality risk. These results highlight the ongoing issue of malnutrition in the hospital setting.