BACKGROUND: Continuous effort has been made to identify patients at high risk of malnutrition, but monitoring and documentation of nutritional intake are relative less emphasized upon.

METHODS: A needs assessment through a cross-sectional study design was carried out at six hospitals in Yogyakarta, Indonesia. A self-administered semi-structured questionnaire was filled out by 111 respondents recruited from three different professions (nurses, dietitians and serving assistants) in the wards.

RESULTS: Seventy per cent of the respondents perceived that the current dietary assessment tool used to record patients' food intake was simple; however, the disadvantage of this tool was its tedious process of computing nutritional values of food consumed. Furthermore, more than half respondents encountered problems in conducting food intake record of patients, primarily due to limited number of human resources, followed by time constraints and perception that such dietary assessment as not part of their job scope.

DISCUSSION: This study has revealed important information in developing a simple, valid and reliable dietary assessment tool for monitoring food intake of hospitalized patients to be applied by interdisciplinary hospital professionals.

CONCLUSIONS: Awareness of the important on monitoring nutrient intake of patients should be emphasized among healthcare professionals. The current dietary assessment tool requires modification due to lengthy time taken to complete the task and poor accuracy in intake estimation.

Methods: Data from the National Health and Morbidity Survey (NHMS) 2018 was analysed. This survey applied a multistage stratified cluster sampling design to ensure national representativeness. Malnutrition was identified using a validated Mini Nutrition Assessment-Short Form (MNA-SF). Variables on sociodemographic, health status, and dietary practices were also obtained. The complex sampling analysis was used to determine the prevalence and associated factors of at-risk or malnutrition among the elderly.

Result: A total of 3,977 elderly completed the MNA-SF. The prevalence of malnutrition and at-risk of malnutrition was 7.3% and 23.5%, respectively. Complex sample multiple logistic regression found that the elderly who lived in a rural area, with no formal or primary level of education, had depression, Instrumental Activity of Daily Living (IADL) dependency, and low quality of life (QoL), were underweight, and had food insecurity and inadequate plain water intake were at a significant risk of malnutrition (malnutrition and at-risk), while Chinese, Bumiputra Sarawak, and BMI more than 25 kgm-2 were found to be protective.

METHODS: This is a prospective observational study involving patients from the orthopaedic oncology unit who were undergoing surgery. They were assessed with Patient Generated Subjective Global Assessment (PG-SGA), Malnutrition Screening Tool (MST) and 3-minute Nutritional Screening (3MinNS) questionnaires. Anthropometric data such as body mass index, mid upper arm circumference (MUAC) and blood parameters such as serum albumin, total lymphocyte count and haemoglobin were also investigated. Patients were then followed up for 3 months. Post-operative complications were divided into infectious and non-infectious groups. Length of stay and unplanned readmission were also documented.

RESULTS: Prevalence of malnutrition ranged from 13.3% to 45.8% under different nutritional assessment methods. Patients who were determined as malnourished were significantly associated with both infectious and non-infectious post-operative complications ( p < 0.001). PG-SGA and 3MinNS values were also significant in univariate and multivariate analysis, respectively. Low serum albumin (<35 g/L) was associated with post-operative infectious complications, especially surgical site infection ( p < 0.001), prolonged hospital stay ( p = 0.009) and unplanned readmission ( p = 0.017). 3MinNS and Charlson Comorbidity Index were predictive of non-infectious complications, whereas serum albumin and the presence of metastasis were predictive of infectious complications.

OBJECTIVE: The study aimed to derive dietary patterns empirically and to examine the consistency and generalizability of patterns across sex, ethnicity, and urban status in a working population.

DESIGN: This was a cross-sectional study using data from the Clustering of Lifestyle Risk Factors and Understanding its Association with Stress on Health and Well-Being among School Teachers in Malaysia study collected between August 2014 and November 2015. Dietary intake was assessed using a food frequency questionnaire, and dietary patterns were derived using factor analysis.

PARTICIPANTS/SETTING: Participants were teachers from selected public schools from three states in Peninsular Malaysia (n=4,618).

MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Dietary patterns derived using factor analysis.

STATISTICAL ANALYSES PERFORMED: Separate factor analysis was conducted by sex, ethnicity, and urban status to identify dietary patterns. Eigenvalue >2, scree plot, Velicer's minimum average partial analysis, and Horn's parallel analysis were used to determine the number of factors to retain. The interpretability of each dietary pattern was evaluated. The consistency and generalizability of dietary patterns across subgroups were assessed using the Tucker congruence coefficient.

RESULTS: There was no subgroup-specific dietary pattern found. Thus, dietary patterns were derived using the pooled sample in the final model. Two dietary patterns (Western and Prudent) were derived. The Western dietary pattern explained 15.4% of total variance, characterized by high intakes of refined grains, animal-based foods, added fat, and sugar-sweetened beverages as well as fast food. The Prudent dietary pattern explained 11.1% of total variance and was loaded with pulses, legumes, vegetables, and fruits.

METHODS: This cross-sectional study recruited children below 18 years old admitting into general paediatric ward in a public hospital. The PNST and Subjective Global Nutritional Assessment (SGNA) were performed on 100 children (64 boys and 36 girls). The objective measurements include anthropometry (z-scores for weight, height and body mass index), dietary history and biochemical markers were measured. These were used to classify malnutrition as per Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics/American Society of Parental and Enteral Nutrition (AND/ASPEN) Consensus Statement for identification of paediatric malnutrition and WHO growth standards for children. Cohen's kappa was computed to report the level of agreement.

RESULTS: The PNST identified 57% of hospitalized children as being at risk of malnutrition. In this study, there was a stronger agreement between PNST with AND/ASPEN malnutrition classification (k = 0.602) as when PNST was compared with WHO (k = 0.225) and SGNA (k = 0.431). The PNST shows higher specificity (85.29%) and sensitivity (78.79%) when compared with AND/ASPEN than with WHO malnutrition criteria (55.81% specificity and 66.67% sensitivity).