Nutritional differences in malnourished patients according to their liquid-intake habits after hospital discharge

Abstract

Introduction: Malnutrition is a serious and relatively common problem among hospitalized patients; moreover, it is known that a good hydration state contributes to health and wellbeing.Objective: The aim of this study was to determine the relationship between nutritional status, functional dependency, quality of life and liquid-intake habits in malnourished patients after hospital discharge.Methods: Cross-sectional descriptive study in 91 patients (45 males) who presented malnutrition at hospital discharge. The patients were grouped according to their liquid intake estimated through the Mini Nutritional Assessment questionnaire: 3-5 glasses (n = 42), and > 5 glasses (n = 46); removing from analysis 5 glasses (n = 46); removing from analysis 5 glasses liquid intake group showed better nutritional status than the 3-5 glasses intake group, for weight (p 5 glasses liquid intake group significantly scored higher values in the total SF-12 questionnaire (p = 0.013), presenting better self-reported quality of life, and higher functional independency in the Barthel index (p = 0.037) than the 3-5 glasses liquid intake group (p = 0.013).Conclusions: Although further research is needed to elucidate the characteristics of this relationship, descriptive comparisons between groups showed favorable nutritional status, functional independency and quality of life for the > 5 glasses of liquid intake compared with the 3-5 glasses of liquid intake group during a 2-months follow-up.