Author(s)

Youdi Cai¹, Meinong Zhong¹, Ya Jiang², Xueling Zhou³, Xiaolan He³, Qian Luo⁴, Xiaoling Li⁵, Shiju Huang^6*

¹Department of Urology, The Third Affiliated Hospital of Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou, China.
²Department of Nursing, The Third Affiliated Hospital of Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou, China.
³Department of Gastrointestinal Surgery, The Third Affiliated Hospital of Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou, China.
⁴Oral and Optic Plastic Surgery Ward, The Third Affiliated Hospital of Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou, China.
⁵Department of Nutrition, The Third Affiliated Hospital of Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou, China.
⁶Department of Surgery, The Third Affiliated Hospital of Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou, China.

Objective: To understand the appetite and nutritional status of hospitalized patients in a tertiary A general hospital in Guangzhou, Guangdong Province. Methods: A cross-sectional survey of appetite and nutritional status assessment on inpatients in 44 wards of the hospital was conducted. Taking all “conscious patients hospitalized for more than 48 hours” in the hospital on November 25, 2020 as the survey subjects, the patients’ appetite, dietary intake, nutrition and nutritional support in the past week were investigated. Results: A total of 890 cases were investigated, among which 25 cases (2.81%) with missing data were excluded, and thus 865 investigated cases were considered effective. The incidence of nutritional risk was 28.67%, malnutrition 13.29%, external tube feeding nutrition 3.24%, parenteral nutrition 7.05%, and oral nutritional supplement 10.40%. The average score of appetite assessment was (6.99 ± 2.43) points. Among them, cases with appetite assessment scores < 5 points accounted for 15.84%, and 52 patient cases utilized appetite-improving drugs. Among the 137 patients with appetite scores < 5, only 7 patients utilized appetite-improving drugs. The patients’ dietary self-evaluation scores were averagely (4.08 ± 1.16) points, and the daily intake compliance rate of patients was 85.78%. Appetite assessment score was correlated with dietary intake score (r = 0.548) and daily intake compliance rate (r = 0.263) (p < 0.01). The differences in body weight, BMI, grip strength, albumin, and hemoglobin concentration of patients with different appetite states were statistically different (p < 0.01). Appetite was an influencing factor of weight change (β = −0.079, p = 0.023). The difference between the appetite assessment scores and the daily intake compliance rates of patients with different nutritional support methods was statistically significant (p < 0.05); the individualized diet group had the highest appetite assessment score (8.57 ± 1.70), while the parenteral nutrition group had the lowest appetite assessment score (4.90 ± 2.99); the individualized diet group had the highest daily intake rate of 100%, followed by the parenteral nutrition group with 96.72%, and the regular diet group had the lowest rate of 84.02%. Conclusion: The appetite of hospitalized patients is closely related to nutritional status, and therefore, attention should be paid to the appetite status and nutritional status of hospitalized patients. Inpatients with different nutritional support methods should be given individualized appetite and nutritional interventions.

Cross-Sectional Study, Appetite, Nutritional Status, Nutritional Support

Cai, Y. , Zhong, M. , Jiang, Y. , Zhou, X. , He, X. , Luo, Q. , Li, X. and Huang, S. (2021) A Cross-Sectional Study on Appetite, Nutritional Status and Nutritional Support of Hospitalized Patients. Open Journal of Nursing, 11, 1002-1014. doi: 10.4236/ojn.2021.1111080.