Nutritional status and support in hospitalized patients with neurological disorders: a cross-sectional survey

Abstract

Abstract Background Proper nutritional management was demonstrated to reduce complications and related to better clinical outcomes. However, inaccurate nutritional screening and assessment, inappropriate nutrition support, and contrary to the suggested guidelines were observed in clinical. Methods A self-designed questionnaire was used to conduct a cross-sectional survey in a tertiary-level general hospital. Nutritional Risk Screening 2002 was used for nutrition screening. A total of 620 patients with neurological diseases were enrolled in this study. Results All patients were conducted with nutritional screening, and among them, 24.4% had nutritional risk on admission and 22.7% in the final assessment. However, there were no statistically significant differences in nutritional status between the first and final assessments, except for the serum albumin concentration. 118 patients (19.0%) received pharmaceutical nutrition therapy and complications occurred in 35(45.5%) patients treated with EN and 29 (30.5%) patients treated with PN. In our study, not all nursing measures for tube feeding apart from confirming catheter position and raising the head of the bed were carried out in every patient receiving tube feeding in our research. Conclusions The incidence of nutritional risk of inpatients with neurological diseases enrolled in this research was relatively lower. However, nutritional treatment in this study was not standardized enough and the medical staff was suggested to accept relevant professional training to perform better in nutrition support.