Malnutrition risk in newly hospitalized overweight and obese individuals: Mr NOI.

Background/objectives: Malnutrition risk and its consequences have not been reported in obese and overweight newly hospitalized patients. To estimate malnutrition risk among newly hospitalized overweight or obese patients, and to assess the effect of body mass index (BMI) on duration of hospitalization and risk of in-hospital death among hospitalized adults at increased risk of malnutrition.
Subjects/methods: In this survey, all adults newly admitted to internal medicine and surgical departments at a large tertiary medical center, during the 5-week data acquisition period in 2010, were screened for malnutrition risk using the Nutrition Risk Screen (NRS 2002). Malnutrition risk was compared across body weight categories. In addition, overweight/obese subjects were compared by malnutrition risk category.
Results: Of the 431 individuals analyzed, 138 were overweight and 105 were obese. Among overweight or obese patients, 23.2% and 24.8%, respectively, were at increased risk for malnutrition. Elevated risk for malnutrition prolonged hospitalization for both overweight and obese patients (from 5.6 ± 7.9 to 10.0 ± 10.3 days (P=0.04) and from 4.8 ± 4.6 to 15.1 ± 25.7 days (P=0.001), respectively). Prolonged hospital stay remained associated with malnutrition risk after controlling for age and BMI. Malnutrition risk significantly increased odds of in-hospital death: odds ratio (OR) 6.4, 95% confidence interval (CI) 1.2-33.2, P=0.03, even after controlling for age and BMI.
Conclusions: Increased malnutrition risk is a frequent finding in newly hospitalized overweight/obese adults, prolongs length of hospital stay and increases risk of in-hospital mortality.