Tackling malnutrition: the next step

It is a fact that malnutrition is common among hospital patients in the UK and is both a cause and a consequence of their ill health. However, hospitals have been slow to adopt effective screen and treat approaches. Data collected during the national Nutritional Screening Weeks (NSW), which were undertaken between 2007 and 2011, have provided information about certain aspects of nutritional care in UK hospitals and the changes that have occurred over time.

The data, which were collected by the British Association for Parenteral and Enteral Nutrition (BAPEN) in collaboration with key stakeholders, would suggest that there have been both clinically relevant and statistically significant improvements in awareness about malnutrition and in the operational infrastructure of nutritional support services over the period in which the surveys were carried out. For example, there has been a reported increase in the proportion of hospitals with an established nutrition screening policy (from 79%-82%, a reported increase in the proportion undertaking audit of nutritional screening (75%-85% to 98%-99%), and a reported increase in the proportion of patients known to have been screened on admission to hospital (67%-78% to 86%-95%). 

In addition, the data show improvements in the reported recording of weight (from 49%-50% to 57%-69%) and height (from 28%-34% to 61%-65%) and improvements in awareness have been reported. There has also been a small but important increase in the practice of linking screening results to a care plan in almost all patients and improved communication on discharge from hospital (from 51%-55% in 2008 up to 70%-73% in 2011).